Marise Figaro, 83, dies of drowning: a family reunion that ends in tragedy

The carefree vacation turned into drama in Tamarin. After the drowning of Marise Figaro, 83, her son bitterly denounced the slowness of rescue and the flaws in the system.

What was supposed to be a happy reunion tragically turned into mourning for the Figaro family. Benjamine Marise Figaro, an 83-year-old octogenarian, drowned on Monday April 13 while staying in a camp in Tamarin. Beyond the loss, his relatives today point the finger at the slowness deemed “unacceptable” of the emergency services.

“I just wanted to enjoy my mom during this vacation,” confides Benny, heartbroken. For this son established in Switzerland, this stay in Mauritius was of particular importance. Arriving on the island on April 3 with his wife and their little daughter, he had not returned to the country for a year. “Last year, we came to introduce our daughter to my mother. This year we wanted to spend a little more time together,” he explains.

After a first stay in Grand-Baie and a few family visits, the family settled in a camp in Tamarin on Sunday evening for a few days of relaxation. On Monday morning, the family enjoys the beach from the early hours. Unfortunately, the happiness will be short-lived.

“My mother was swimming on her own while we went a little further into the water with my wife and my daughter. That’s when we lost sight of her,” says Benny. Turning around, the family saw the octogenarian in difficulty, fighting against the waves. Despite rapid intervention by those close to her to bring her back to the sand, and although she was still conscious when she came out of the water, Marise Figaro's condition deteriorated suddenly. She loses consciousness a few moments later.

Benny's story then becomes more bitter when he talks about the organization of relief. Despite repeated calls from witnesses and relatives to medical emergency numbers, time passes without any ambulance showing up. “It was first of all the employees of the neighboring hotel who helped us, in particular their nurse who led the resuscitation maneuvers. The coast guard only arrived a good half hour later, followed by the police after 45 minutes,” he laments.

The family's indignation reached its peak when a private ambulance finally arrived, an hour after the alert, at the request of the police. “A police officer explained to me that one ambulance was broken down, another was already occupied, just like the SAMU. I don’t understand how it is possible that no ambulance from a public hospital could have intervened,” said the victim’s son. While Benny concedes that it might not have saved his mother, he believes that it would have at least brought a glimmer of hope in this chaos.

“Yesterday, anger was high. Today, there is total incomprehension. How do medical emergencies work in Mauritius? “, he asks. There