The Tulle court sentenced a Corrèze doctor to a 6-month suspended prison sentence on Tuesday afternoon for failure to assist a person in danger and involuntary injuries. Dr Françoise Saquer intervened on the evening of May 12, 2017 with a patient from Naves who complained of severe pain in her left arm. Although suspecting the possibility of a heart attack she had not called the SAMU.
The doctor was content to issue a prescription with an analgesic, an anti-inflammatory, an antibiotic, vitamins and even a mouthwashfinally opting for shoulder tendonitis and a gastric problem, coupled with an anxiety attack.
Deceived by an identical pain 15 days before
Before the court, the practitioner readily admits having done a misdiagnosismisdirected by the patient who reported identical pain 15 days earlier, relieved with paracetamol. “It gave me a kind of lightness” says the doctor. “However, asks the president, you advised her to go to the emergency room, is it because you were thinking of something more serious?”. “Yes but she refused to go” answers the doctor awkwardly. For the prosecution, it is therefore obvious that the doctor had not completely ruled out the possibility of a heart attack when he left the patient’s home. It is therefore a case of non-assistance to a person in danger more than a medical error according to him.
In the end, the 48-year-old patient was saved thanks to the intervention of his minor daughters who found help to drive her to the emergency room. But today she still suffers from the after-effects of lost time.