the family demands the appointment of a judge

Four years after the controversial suicide of a doctor at the American Hospital of Paris, located in Neuilly-sur-Seine, his family requests the appointment of an investigating judge. During the preliminary investigation, his colleagues described targeted harassment and toxic management known to management.

Nearly four years after the death of Emmanuel M., many questions remain about the underlying reasons which pushed this 48-year-old anesthetist-resuscitator, considered one of the best French specialists in his discipline, to suddenly end his life. his days. At the time of his action, the doctor was working at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, an establishment popular with VIPs.

A few months after the events, his widow filed a complaint for moral and professional harassment, convinced that the atmosphere “atrocious” within her team and serious dysfunctions known to the management of this private establishment are at the origin of the death of her husband. This complaint against

“An incomprehensible decision both in substance and in form”, analyzes today Me Benjamin Bohbot, lawyer for the family of Emmanuel M. who immediately filed a complaint with a civil party to obtain the opening of a judicial investigation and the appointment of an investigating judge.

Service management called into question

Almost a year after this new complaint for moral harassment and involuntary manslaughter, no judge has been appointed in this case and the doctor’s family despairs of the opening of an independent investigation. At the origin of the obstinacy of the family of this anesthetist in demanding justice, a series of consistent elements and testimonies of colleagues, some of which were collected in the investigation of the brigade for the repression of delinquency against persons (BRDP ).

According to the conclusions of this investigation, which franceinfo was able to consult, the former head of the anesthesia and intensive care unit denied having harassed the anesthesiologist, but 13 of the 16 doctors interviewed on the contrary specifically questioned the management of this service, degraded working conditions, a form of permanent surveillance but also more specific events which could have weakened their missing colleague.

“I think that Emmanuel was the subject of moral harassmentdeclared a former head of division of the American Hospital to investigators. He was the victim of significant professional pressure. The current management is responsible for this. What is called into question is an entire aggressive management system.” To the investigators, another doctor also described a very clear deterioration in the working atmosphere among the teams: “With the Touraine law (which reduced reimbursements for hospitalizations by mutual insurance companies), the hospital lost part of the income from its French clientele. And its American accreditation was almost withdrawn. The governors changed the management and it a climate of terror set in. (…) We were monitored, controlled. We were constantly under pressure, attacks.” Another doctor mentions “a climate of malevolence, a rotten atmosphere. We had a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads since we knew that with the slightest mistake, we would not be supported. I spoke a lot with Emmanuel and he knew that he would not There would be no room for error.”

“Conflictful relationships”, “unacceptable abuses”…

In an email dated December 24, 2019, two months before the anesthesiologist’s suicide, the president of the hospital’s Medical Council had alerted his management to the toxic and stifling atmosphere within the Anesthesia Department. “A clan model”, “conflictual relationships”, “unacceptable excesses which weaken the institution and team spirit”, “aggressive leadership from the head of the Pole” could we read in this email. Faced with investigators, this executive confided that he had decided to inform his management precisely because of the “contempt” and of “ostracism” whose anesthesiologist was targeted by his boss but also other doctors. “Emmanuel really suffered from it, explained the framework. He came to seek my presence because I was trying to cheer him up.”

In February 2020, the month of his suicide, the anesthesiologist worked five shifts in 14 days, working nearly 180 hours. A schedule established by its department head. “We found ourselves with an overload of work which is dangerous for the patients and for us, one of the doctors explained to investigators. We complained about it regularly. When we complained to the staff, they screamed. It was a complete rejection.” It is in this context of fatigue and tension described by his colleagues and managers that a medical incident would have destabilized the anesthetist. Just a few days before his suicide, the doctor had to urgently manage a complication during the cesarean delivery of the wife of an American billionaire.

While medical investigations showed that he had reacted perfectly to the situation, in the absence of the surgeon in charge of the patient, the anesthesiologist found himself in the position of the accused according to the testimony of several of his colleagues and his widow. “Emmanuel found himself on the front line with the patient’s husbandexplains one of the doctors to investigators (…) The American family put pressure on management and we called Emmanuel to hold him accountable.”. Another doctor who spoke with the anesthesiologist before his suicide explained to the police: “This story traumatized him. He blamed himself for it even though he handled the problem perfectly well for which he was not responsible. It was the last straw. He didn’t get over it. He couldn’t bear it because he was exhausted and because they were ruining his life.”

Malfunctions in the internal investigation?

A month after the doctor’s suicide, the management of the American Hospital commissioned a commission ad hoc on these facts which shocked the establishment. The commission heard around twenty people and concluded that there were internal dysfunctions without making the link with the desperate gesture of the anesthetist. A commission whose impartiality is called into question by Emmanuel M.’s family lawyer. “Five months after the submission of this supposedly independent and confidential report, underlines Me Benjamin Bohbot to franceinfo, the president of this commission who previously worked in another hospital was appointed medical director of the American Hospital! One of the members of this commission also joined the Governors Board (Anglo-Saxon equivalent of a board of directors). There may also have been malfunctions during this internal investigation.” Contacted several times by franceinfo about the suicide of this doctor, the American Hospital never responded to our requests.

The case of this anesthetist from Neuilly-sur-Seine is reminiscent of the suicide in 2015 of a cardiologist from the Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris. Last month, at the end of a long investigation, the Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris and several members of the hierarchy of this establishment were fined for moral harassment against this doctor. The AP-HP appealed this judgment.