France - Hallyday in hospital

French rocker's back op butchery, says producer

Article published on the 2009-12-11 Latest update 2009-12-11 15:33 TU

Johnny Hallyday in concert
(Photo: Frédéric Loridant / Wikimedia Commons)

A row blew up on Friday following an operation on French rock legend Johnny Hallyday. The singer’s producer Jean-Claude Camus said surgery carried out in Paris was “completely butchery”. Hallyday is in a drug-induced coma in a Los Angeles hospital after an infection apparently arising from the operation.

The veteran rocker, who is  revered in France, was taken to the Cedars Sinai hospital after falling ill with an infection on Monday.

Camus, who has worked with the star since 1976, said Friday that he is “doing much better than he was 24 hours ago” and  that he woke  from a coma and saw his wife Laeticia after surgery.

But on Friday surgeons used drugs to induce another coma to help his recovery.

Hallyday has had a number of health problems since undergoing surgery for cancer of the colon earlier this year.

At the end of November he had further treatment for a herniated disc, which may cause back pain, leg pain or weakness of the muscles.

Camus is now threatening legal action, claiming that American surgeons say that the November operation caused the latest complications.

Staff at the US hospital “told us his operation in Paris was complete butchery”, he said on French radio.

Stéphane Delajoux, the surgeon who operated on Hallyday in Paris was not available for comment, but Stéphane Lievain from the Monceau International Clinic, where the treatment took place, had said previously that the operation went normally and that Hallyday could walk when he left.

Hallyday, who has been entertaining crowds since the 1960s, was taking a break from his Tour 66 show at his Los Angeles home, and is scheduled to return to the stage on 8 January in the French city of Amiens.

But Camus believes this might be too quick, warning that the team will take doctors' advice as to how much time the star needs to recover.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday said that Hallyday’s condition, “creates great emotion in France” and that the performer “represents part of our personal history”.