He is one of the 80 people who launched a collective legal action against the Orpea group in early April. Stéphane Thuel, 48, lives in Chamalières (Puy-de-Dôme). On November 9, 2017, he lost his father, who was then hospitalized at the Six Lacs de Chamalières clinic. A clinic owned by Clinea, a subsidiary of the Orpea group.
You have to go back a few months to better understand the situation. In August 2017, Stéphane Thuel’s father had a road accident. “He fractured his elbow and the patella of his right knee” he details. Injuries that require operations at Clermont University Hospital. A kind of prosthesis is placed in the knee of his father, who must go to an aftercare clinic. He then arrives at the Six Lakes.
Complications during recovery
“The knee should not move, be immobilized, Stephen recalls. And I learn in October that he must be urgently re-operated because the mechanism put in place has passed through the skin. His father goes back to the block of the CHU de Clermont where the device is removed, the wound disinfected and a new device put back in place. his father died a few weeks later November 9.
Stéphane Thuel first thought of a medical error of the CHU. Medical experts re-examine the file and conclude that the hospital is not at fault. Stéphane Thuel is therefore convinced that there has been negligence at the clinic of the Six Lakes. “There is a lack of supervision. The only thing we knew how to say to him – and he was brainwashed – was: “It’s your fault, stop moving”. The few times I saw staff, because to see someone, it went back to the miracle, I was told: “Your father does anything”. Nope ! He was in pain.”
The Six Lakes clinic defends itself
Determined to go all the way of the procedure, Stéphane Thuel refused the appointment proposed by the director of the Six Lakes clinic, who arrived two years ago. An exchange “so that he might get the answers he’s been waiting for” explains Nicolas Iglesias, the director of the establishment.
Him denies any responsibility of the clinic in the death of the septuagenarian: “There was no lack of care, the teams did everything there was to do. We did not contribute to the death of Mr. Thuel’s father.”
“His state of health deteriorated very quickly and it can happen to people who are already a little old, continues Nicolas Iglesisas. But we we are absolutely for nothing in this very rapid aggravation. The best we could have done was to support the family. Perhaps Mr. Thuel was not accompanied enough and he felt lonely.”
Nicolas Iglesias denounces today “unfair” accusations.
– Francois Breton