Jean-Pierre Adams, a former France football player, passed away at the age of 73.

The surprising part of his life, aside from being a successful football star, was being in a coma for 39 years after being admitted to the Nimes University hospital for knee surgery in Mar. 1982.

However, he couldn't regain consciousness after a botched operation with the supply of anesthetic used to him.

His team Paris St-Germain also praised Adams, saying, "joie de vivre, charisma and experience commanded respect."

Adams, who won 22 international caps for France, said he felt in great shape ahead of his operation on Mar. 17, 1982.

Concerns about the Dakar, Senegal native emerged while undertaking a coaching course in Dijon in that same year.

Per the Guardian, the former defender was on a week-long coaching course. However, by the third day, there was some concern over his knee.

By the fourth day, Adams quit the course that morning and headed for a hospital in Lyon.

According to the initial scan, there was damage in his tendon at the back of the knee.

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Jean-Pierre Adams' Final Moments Before Coma

As he was about to go out of the hospital, he reportedly bumped into a surgeon, and after their discussion, there was an agreement that his knee should be operated on.

Jean-Pierre Adams reportedly told his wife Bernadette on the morning of his operation, "It's all fine. I'm in great shape," in what would have been his final words.

In the operating room, it was reported that Adams, who has two songs, Laurent and Frederic, had a problem with the anesthesia. The doctor who operated on his knee reportedly worked simultaneously on eight other patients.

In a statement by his wife in 2007, Bernadette stated that her husband "feels, smells, hears, jumps when a dog barks," but "he cannot see."

The case into how the botched procedure was handle went to court for seven years before they came out with a conclusion.

While playing for Paris St-Germain, Pierre Huth, the athlete's doctor, led the case, which came to a close when it was found that the doctors leading the operation were guilty of involuntary injury.

15 months later Jean-Pierre Adams was discharged from the hospital and since then, had been cared for at home in Nimes by his wife, per BBC.

Why Wasn't Jean-Pierre Adams Euthanized?

Bernadette Adams told Paris United in April 2020, almost 40 years of not awakening from the coma, that she didn't want to euthanize her husband.

"just don't have the courage to stop giving him food and water."

She added how Jean-Pierre Adams had a routine, like waking up at 7 AM then eating.

"He may be in a vegetative state but he can hear and sit in a wheelchair."

Meanwhile, Adams' former defensive partner Tresor told the outlet that if ever Adams woke up that time, "he will hardly recognize anything."

That's why when Tresor thought if something like that happened to him, he reportedly told his wife "not to do anything to hold me back."

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