Hello and welcome to the details of ‘I’ve been waiting 17 years’: Families seek justice as ‘star’ French doctor faces murder charges and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Frédéric Pechier, 53, was working as an anaesthetist at two clinics in Besançon when patients went into cardiac arrest under suspicious circumstances between 2008 and 2017. Twelve did not survive. — Pexels pic
BESANÇON (France) Sept 8 — A French doctor went on trial today accused of intentionally poisoning 30 patients, 12 of whom died, in an alleged attempt to show off his resuscitation skills and discredit colleagues.
Frédéric Pechier, 53, was working as an anaesthetist at two clinics in Besançon when patients went into cardiac arrest under suspicious circumstances between 2008 and 2017. Twelve did not survive.
Among the alleged victims was a four-year-old child who suffered two cardiac arrests during a routine tonsil operation in 2016 but survived, and an 89-year-old patient who died.
The trial, which will run in Besançon until December, follows a seven-year investigation that shocked the French medical community.
Pechier, a father of three who has been banned from practising medicine, faces life imprisonment if convicted. He has denied all charges and is currently under judicial supervision rather than in pre-trial detention.
“I’ve been waiting for this for 17 years,” said Amandine Iehlen, whose father died of cardiac arrest during kidney surgery in 2008. An autopsy revealed an overdose of lidocaine, a local anaesthetic.
Prosecutor Étienne Manteaux described the case as “unprecedented in French legal history”.
Investigators suspect Pechier of tampering with colleagues’ paracetamol bags or anaesthesia pouches to trigger operating room emergencies, where he would intervene to display his supposed life-saving skills.
“What he is accused of is poisoning healthy patients in order to harm colleagues with whom he was in conflict,” Manteaux said. “Frédéric Pechier was the first responder when cardiac arrest occurred. He always had a solution.”
Some colleagues described him as a “star anaesthetist”, while others called him arrogant and manipulative, claiming he liked to think of himself as “Zorro”.
Over 70 cases of unexpected complications or deaths were reviewed during the investigation, with 30 making it to trial. Pechier was first detained and charged in 2017 after a 36-year-old woman suffered cardiac arrest during surgery.
The trial involves more than 150 civil parties, including a trade union for anaesthetists, and 55 lawyers representing victims.
“This is a dizzying case owing to its scale, duration and technical complexity,” said Frédéric Berna, one of the lawyers, adding that he doubted the court would hear “sincere and honest explanations” from Pechier.
A psychological evaluation in 2019 pointed to a “controlling personality” with “perverse traits”, though his defence rejected those findings.
Ahead of the trial, Pechier insisted he intended to prove his innocence.
“I have to fight one last time to bring this to an end,” he told broadcaster BFMTV. “I’m not tired. I’m not angry. I just want people to listen for once.” — AFP
These were the details of the news ‘I’ve been waiting 17 years’: Families seek justice as ‘star’ French doctor faces murder charges for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
