A Paris appeals court has ordered the resumption of life support for a Frenchman from whom doctors had only hours earlier begun withdrawing treatment, in a wrenching case that has divided his family and country.

The court ordered authorities “to take all measures” to keep alive Vincent Lambert, a 42-year-old quadriplegic with severe brain damage who has been in a vegetative state for a decade, pending a review by the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Lambert’s mother, Viviane, 73, hailed the ruling as “a very big victory” in her struggle to maintain vital medical care for her son.

Doctors in France had earlier Monday halted the nutrition and hydration Lambert receives, in line with the wishes of his wife and other relatives.

Other courts this year had backed their assessment that nothing more could be done for Lambert, who has been kept alive ever since a car accident in 2008.

Medical sources told AFP that Lambert could die within days or a week without the life support treatment he had been getting in the Sebastopol hospital in the north-eastern French city of Reims.

Vincent Lambert, a quadriplegic man on artificial life support in Reims Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images

The case has reignited a contentious debate over France’s right-to-die laws, which allow so-called “passive” euthanasia for severely ill or injured patients with no chance of recovery.

Lambert’s parents, devout Catholics, have repeatedly launched court action to keep him alive, putting them at odds with his wife and six siblings who believe the most humane course is to let him die.

On Monday, his mother told AFP: “They were starting to eliminate Vincent! This is a very big victory. They are going to restore nutrition and give him drink. For once I am proud of the courts.”

But Lambert’s nephew Francis, who supported euthanasia for his uncle, said restoring treatment would be “pure sadism by the medical-judicial system”.

Before the latest court ruling, Pope Francis had weighed in on Monday in favour of keeping Lambert alive.

“Let us always safeguard life, God’s gift, from its beginning until its natural end. Let us not give in to a throwaway culture,” the pontiff said.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, rejected calls by Lambert’s parents and others to intervene, saying “the decision to stop treatment was taken after a constant dialogue between his doctors and his wife, who is his legal representative”.

Lambert’s wife, Rachel, said that “to see him go, is to see him as a freed man”.

“Everyone can have their own opinion and convictions ... but above all, can we now have our privacy,” she told RTL radio.

A Paris march took place late on Monday towards the Elysee palace to call for Macron to step in. “There is still time to stop this madness,” the parents’ lawyers said.

In 2014, Lambert’s doctors, backed by his wife and siblings, decided to stop his nutrition and hydration in line with the law.

But the parents, his half-brother and a sister obtained a court order to block the move on grounds his condition might improve with better treatment, setting off a complex and wrenching legal saga that has lasted half a decade.