“I don’t care about conciliation, an amicable settlement. Let them keep their money. And yet, God knows I need it!” At the end of the line, Jean-Didier Bonard has difficulty containing his anger. After the death of his wife, the one who had become “his caregiver” filed a complaint against the Pierre-Oudot hospital in Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère) for failure to assist a person in danger. While she went to the establishment’s emergency room on January 4 for a foot infection, which she feared was linked to her heart failure, Cathy Bonard died twelve days later, in a hospital center in the Lyon region where she had to be transferred, after a coma and several cardiac arrests.
Over the past two years, like Jean-Didier Bonard, many relatives of patients who died after a trip to the emergency room have taken legal action. This month of April 2024 marks six months of a case that has become emblematic : that of Lucas, 25 years old, died at Hyères hospital (Var) after waiting several hours on a stretcher in a corridor. His mother, Corinne Godefroy, wanted to take the matter to court. In the Vosges, a dozen have filed a complaint after losing a loved one at the Remiremont hospital center, whose management itself admitted “a failure” in October. In Eaubonne (Val-d’Oise), three families have announced that they are filing a complaint against the hospital (which says it is only aware of two procedures, one of which has since been closed).
A reality difficult to measure
These cases received significant media coverage, giving the impression of a resurgent phenomenon. “Everything ready to believe that these tragic situations are on the rise,” A group of six deputies supported by around fifty organizations and unions in the health sector was moved in February, asking for the creation of a commission of inquiry on this subject.
Health authorities do not keep an official count of these unexpected deaths after a trip to the emergency room. The High Authority for Health (HAS), on the other hand, lists, more broadly, “serious adverse events associated with care” (EIGS), that is to say unexpected complications “with regard to the state of health and pathology of the patient and the consequences of which are death, life-threatening prognosis or the probable occurrence of a permanent functional deficit”. Between 2021 and 2022, their number increased by 27%, from 1 874 SAEs declared at 2 385, without knowing how many of these “adverse events” correspond to people who died due to not having been treated quickly in the emergency room. According to the HAS, this increase does not reflect an increase in incidents, but a better response from professionals, in a context where these events are still largely under-reported.
On the side of the MACSF, the main insurer for doctors in the event of a disputethere is a drop in 5% of complaints (4 075) in 2022 compared to 2021 (4 289). “On average, between 5 and 7% of complaints will turn into complaints with a prosecutor or an administrative court, which represents 0.1% of users who go to the emergency room”calculates Jérome Goeminne, director of the Grand Hôpital de l’Est Ile-de-France and president of the Union of Public Health Managers. “When a complaint is filed, we receive the users with the people concerned and we draw conclusions to improve our practices”he assures.
As a general rule, complainants prefer an amicable remedy, says the MACSF. This procedure “reduces costs for both parties”patients or their loved ones on one side, the establishment and the medical team on the other, explains its deputy general director, Nicolas Gombault. “This allows us to move faster, because in the case of a trial before a court, you can go through fifteen years of proceedings, whereas in the event of an agreement, it can be resolved in eleven months.”
Two years of mourning without explanation
Why do some relatives of victims then choose the more expensive and longer route of going to court? “We didn’t want to make a fuss,” assures Angélique Souque. It is for this reason that initially, she and her family contacted the Remiremont hospital center to obtain an appointment and her mother’s medical records, died a week after being admitted for a fractured femur, in the summer of 2022. Without thinking that this request would create so much friction with the establishment.
“I never asked for the hospital to cry with me, nor a eulogy speech about my mom. All I want are answers.”
Angélique Souque, plaintiff against the Remiremont hospitalat franceinfo
Angélique Souque assures her, she was ready to “hear everything” about her mother’s state of health: a sudden illness, an operation that went wrong, a medical error… But faced with the hospital’s lack of listening, she ended up having doubts. Why take so long to respond to him? What really happened? In the medical file that was finally sent to her, the sudden death of her mother remains unexplained, she says. She then decides to involve justice in this affair. With her father and three sisters, they filed a complaint in November 2022. According to her, it was only after this process that she learned that the hospital was offering a conciliation meeting. No longer trusting the establishment, she refuses. Almost two years later, “When my daughters ask me what their grandmother died of, I still don’t know what their answer“.
“We knows that all our explanations will do nothing in the face of bereaved loved ones. On the other hand, we need to improve on communication.” argues Mathias Wargon, emergency doctor in Seine-Saint-Denis. “We must combine a very human response, which can be done orally, and a legally irreproachable response, which can seem very cold”recognizes Jérôme Goeminne. “We know that this is a very difficult task. However, we are working hard to ensure that we respond to it.” When contacted, the Remiremont hospital center did not wish to answer our questions.
A prize pool to lead the legal fight
In the Var, Lucas’ mother also wants explanations from the Hyères hospital. If she went to the police station, it’s “to hold the caregivers who dealt with my son and did nothing to their responsibilities”, shouts Corinne Godefroy. With the media coverage of his son’s death, his story spread. Three months later, when Jean-Didier Bonard decided to file a complaint against the Bourgoin-Jallieu establishment, he did not think that his story would feed the news channels continuously: “Initially, I wanted to attack the establishment to make it face its responsibilities. But now, the idea is to make people aware that we can die because of the hospital’s negligence”.
Since a notable appearance on BFMTV in February, he says he has received more than 400 messages, calls or relays of his story: “People support me, they tell me that they too have experienced these problems”. Testimonies that reinforce his desire not to stop there. “I don’t have the money to pay a lawyer, so I’m going to set up a fund. All the money raised will be used for this legal fight, then everything that’s left will be dedicated to the victims of this hospital, then all hospitals”, promises this former heavy goods vehicle driver. On the other hand, he refused the meeting offered to him by the Pierre-Oudot hospital, preferring to make a complaint to the regional health agency, in addition to his complaint. For its part, management asserts that “this hour”he was not notified of a complaint by the public prosecutor’s office.
In Val-d’Oise, Marie-Pierre Mazzaggio already knows that her legal journey will be long and tortuous if she wants to pursue it. After the death of his mother on January 4, 2023, his complaint against the Eaubonne hospital center was dismissed.
“She had no meals or diaper changes after 22 hours. The hospital recognized that there had been shortages, but nothing more.”
Marie-Pierre Mazzaggio, plaintiff against the Eaubonne hospitalat franceinfo
In the weeks following her mother’s death, she created a Facebook group to reunite families who have lost a loved one in hospital, and to provide mutual assistance with administrative procedures.
“Don’t stand by and do nothing”
Bakhta Mélouki joined this group of Internet users. She, who works in a radiology office, wants to understand what caused the death of her father in January 2023. Aged 75 and treated for Parkinson’s disease, he entered the emergency room of the Simone-Veil hospital in Eaubonne on the advice of his nurse. He remained there for 36 hours, before being transferred to a geriatric unit, where he died two weeks later. “I can’t understand how someone who arrives at the hospital walking leaves in a coffin so quickly”, blurts out her daughter, disillusioned. Even if she does not have the means to bear the legal costs and complete the procedure, she filed a complaint to help other families in their efforts: “I hope that with the accumulation effect, the investigation will move forward”.
In the Vosges, Angélique Souque founded the AJC association for them to support the bereaved relatives of patients who died at the Remiremont hospital. “I didn’t have the strength to fight alone against an administration”explains Azzdine Aïssa, whose mother died in July 2020 after being hospitalized in the same establishment. “I didn’t feel like taking legal action until I saw press articles and the existence of the association.”
“I’m not interested in money, I just want answers to my questions.”
Azzdine Aïssa, plaintiff against the Remiremont hospitalat franceinfo
Angélique Souque hopes that the structure will also serve to raise collective awareness. “I don’t know if it’s a problem of skills or resources, but it has to stopinsists the mother. We can no longer stand by and do nothing, otherwise we are complicit in all of this. We need to show doctors and the political world that we are not isolated and that we are determined.”