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Actor and director Arnaud Denis, left severely disabled after the insertion of an anti-hernia implant, chose to end his life by euthanasia in Belgium on Tuesday at the age of 43 to put a stop to his suffering, his lawyer Philippe Courtois told AFP.
“The decision taken by Arnaud Denis was made in consultation with three doctors in Namur. His body could no longer carry him. He had lost control of it. Arnaud Denis’s death is the consequence of the intense pain he had been enduring for many months,” he added.
Best known for his productions of Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Molière’s Les Femmes Savantes, Denis had been suffering since a polypropylene mesh implant was fitted on 17 July 2023 after a right groin hernia.
The operation triggered numerous side effects, which eventually drove him to have the implant removed in the United States in April 2024.
The actor was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, in the context of ASIA syndrome (an inflammatory reaction linked to exposure to an adjuvant). The implant is thought to have caused persistent inflammation and disrupted his immune system.
“I can no longer leave my home, I have no social life, I have no life at all. I no longer have anything that constitutes the dignity of a man’s life. And it is getting worse and worse. I live like a cancer patient in the terminal phase. The doctors have nothing left to offer me,” he confided in early 2026 to the regional daily Dauphiné Libéré (source in French).
‘A man knows deep down when he is doomed’
On 5 January 2026, Denis lodged a complaint with the Public Health Division of the Paris public prosecutor’s office for “unintentional injuries”, but it was dropped at the end of August “for lack of sufficiently established offence”.
Seeing no other way than euthanasia to end his suffering, the actor said at the beginning of the year: “A man knows deep down inside when he is doomed.” On 18 March, he was admitted to a palliative care unit in a Belgian hospital, pending approval of his euthanasia request.
His lawyer condemned what he called “a silent public health scandal”, arguing that “thousands of patients” are “exposed to high-risk implants, without clear information or informed consent, suffering serious medical complications, most of them irreversible”.
“Medtronic has acknowledged in a letter sent to Mr Arnaud Denis that implanting parietal reinforcement devices may be the cause of chronic and acute post-operative pain, an unwanted effect mentioned in the instructions for use of the Dextile device intended for healthcare professionals. Yet these instructions are intended for healthcare professionals and not for patients, who receive no information,” Philippe Courtois pointed out.
Denis set up a collective called “French victims of hernia prostheses”, which has gathered hundreds of testimonies on social media from people who have suffered adverse effects linked to anti-hernia implants.