Heat of the moment

David Azevedo was keen to impress in his new job in construction. But a heatwave in France made working conditions outdoors unbearable. Two years later, his family are still waiting for answers about his death.

- Samira Shackle

FOR ANNE-MARIE AZEVEDO, 13 July 2022 started off like a normal day. Her brother David was staying with her while he got his life back on track after a period of unemployment.

He was on the third day of a new job in construction and had been asked to work extra hours. Eager to make a good impression, David was up and out of the door first thing. As she got ready for work later in the morning, Anne-Marie thought David had mistakenly picked up her house keys, so she called him. She was reassured to hear that he sounded fine, despite the fact that the previous evening he had been exhausted and visibly unwell from the heat. France was in the grip of an intense heatwave, and he was working outside all day. David hadn't taken the keys, so after a quick chat Anne-Marie got on with her day.

At 11.50am, she received a call from an unknown number. It was someone from the construction site saying that David was unwell and she needed to come and collect him. Anne-Marie immediately got into her car and drove the 10 minutes to the site.

Nothing had prepared her for what she saw. David was lying on the pavement, under a small tree - a patch of shade so small that part of his body was still in the sunlight. He was convulsing and drooling.

No one was attending to him, and there were no medics to be seen.

Anne-Marie screamed, and someone told her that an ambulance was on its way. "I didn't understand what was happening," she says. "I didn't understand why my brother was like that, why they had called me, why they hadn't called the emergency services first." She is still haunted by the idea that the delay in medical treatment could have made a crucial difference.