Over the last four years, Dr. Marie-Anne Archambault has a patient who is now making the whole of Quebec cry: Karl Tremblay. As the attending physician, she accompanied the “Cowboy” through all the twists and turns of his battle against cancer. Today, with the consent of the deceased’s partner, Marie-Annick Lépine, she would like to pay tribute in an open letter to Le Devoir to the greatness of the man who became a monument in death.
On the other end of the line, the doctor is still emotional. “I really had to cry a lot,” she explains sadly.
Almost four years ago, she had the abomination of telling Karl Tremblay a gruesome diagnosis: metastatic, inoperable prostate cancer. “Spreading this message that completely destroys lives is always the hardest thing I have to do. In Karl’s case it was even more difficult because not only was he a 44-year-old father to whom I announced that his life was ruined, but he was also the icon, the monument, the voice. »
At that time, the singer was already an idol. “I was a big fan. It was very difficult for me to be both an admirer and a doctor who wanted to remain objective: I felt so committed,” recalls Dr. Archambault. Over time, I got to know the man beyond the artist. He was an extraordinary person: I have the great privilege of being able to look after him and get to know him. »
A death that no one expected
Always modest, “very shy,” the dashing giant still embodies courage in the doctor’s eyes. “His illness was disgusting from the start,” she emphasizes. It was hateful and unfair, like all cancers, but that was especially true for Karl, who was so young. Despite all the indignities that this disease brings, I have never seen him become discouraged. He had a strength that I find difficult to describe, a strength that even I sometimes found difficult to harness to keep going. »
On Thursday evening Dr. Archambault took communion on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec, surrounded by hundreds of grieving fans who found so many shoulders to lay their grief on in the choral songs of the Cowboys Fringants. Incognito in the crowd, she had just accompanied Karl Tremblay as he breathed his last, struck by a death that no one had expected so soon.
“The reason he came to the hospital was not to die, but to get back on his feet and start another project,” emphasizes Dr. Archambault. Such a quick departure was not to be expected. I don’t think we could have saved him, but I think we could have extended his life further. The disease had its own plan: it was ahead of us. »
Karl Tremblay was scheduled to receive radiation therapy treatments on Friday. “We had to irradiate it, control the pain and then move on,” the doctor remembers. But things escaped us. The illness, the suffering, the pain was so extreme, so unspeakable, so unbearable to anyone who endured it that it became so overwhelming that he fell. It was this pain that caused this great giant to collapse: his head and his heart still wanted, but it was the body that no longer followed. »
“He wanted Quebec so badly”
This suffering accompanied Karl Tremblay on stage. “I was the boring doctor who told him that the stage, the tour and the chemo didn’t go well together,” remembers Marie-Anne Archambault. He always managed to make me lie: the stage treated him more than any other treatment. »
Despite his significant other’s worried disapproval, the singer wanted to give his audience his all. Karl Tremblay refused to let his cancer cancel a European tour: Ultimately, it was the pandemic that got the better of this long – and arduous – journey to the other side of the Atlantic. “I told him it couldn’t be that he couldn’t go on stage. He told me, “Yeah, I can do that, we’ll transfuse, we’ll take a little Decadron and then we’ll go.” He was right: his shows were getting better one after the other. He proved that his way of doing things was better than mine. »
In Quebec, Karl Tremblay was still in hospital in extreme pain just days before his body and soul were handed over to an audience of 90,000 people gathered following the summer festival. “He wanted Quebec, he wanted Quebec so badly. I told her again: “You can’t go there, it’s impossible,” the doctor remembers. When I saw a storm cancel the show, I saw it a bit like the pandemic that saved us from the European tour in 2020, a bit like a sign from heaven protecting my patient. He received a transfusion again, went on stage and let me lie: he did things that were incompatible with life on paper, he went beyond the limits. »
The doctor is particularly moved by the wave of love that has been pouring in from all corners of the French-speaking world since Wednesday. “Karl himself would never have claimed to inspire so much love. I wrote to Marie-Annick that this wave is proportional to the wave of pain everyone feels. His death shocked all of us, his family and me. We were in a nightmare and we wake up to this unexpected and unexpected reaction of love. »
“I hope,” concludes Dr. Archambault, “that thanks to this disease, those close to them will heal a little of their pain.” Even though it hurts, I feel blessed that I was able to care not only for a memorial, but for someone who is in is so important to my life. »