the anesthetist indicted for two new cases of poisoning

Once again prosecuted. The anesthetist Frédéric Péchier was “indicted for two [nouveaux] case” poisoning on patients, including a fatal one, and was placed under the status of assisted witness for a third, announced the public prosecutor Etienne Manteaux, Wednesday March 8 in Besançon (Doubs).

The anesthesiologist is now suspected of 26 cases of patient poisoning. Before the magistrate’s announcement, Frédéric Péchier’s lawyer, Randall Schwerdorffer, had advanced to the press the indictment of his client for “seven” new cases. “There was a hiccup. I actually made a mistake”he then conceded to AFP Randall Schwerdorffer. “There are five other cases where the indictment is considered”, he assured. The defense will challenge these new indictments before the investigating chamber of the Besançon Court of Appeal.

“Potassium doses 100 times higher than normal”

Frédéric Péchier is suspected of having polluted the infusion bags of patients between 2008 and 2017 in two private clinics in Besançon to cause cardiac arrest and then demonstrate his talents as a resuscitator, but also to discredit colleagues with whom he was in conflict. The case began when an anesthetist from a clinic in the city had given the alert after three unexplained cardiac arrests of her patients in full operation. Analyzes of the infusion bags seized revealed “potassium doses 100 times higher than normal”detailed Etienne Manteaux at the end of September.

In January 2017, a judicial investigation was opened and two months later, Frédéric Péchier, was indicted and placed under judicial supervision for the first seven cases of alleged poisoning of patients.

The direction of the clinic had then presented to the investigators of the judicial police of Besançon 66 cases of SAE (serious adverse event) occurring in their establishment. These investigations led, in May 2019, to the indictment of the doctor for 17 new cases of poisoning, i.e. a total of 24 cases concerning patients aged 4 to 80, including nine fatalities.