A former French anaesthetist has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of deliberately poisoning 30 patients, 12 of whom died.
Frédéric Péchier, 53, was convicted on Friday following a four month trial in the eastern city of Besançon, in one of the largest medical crime cases ever heard in France.
The court found that Péchier introduced chemicals including potassium chloride and adrenaline into patients’ infusion bags, triggering cardiac arrests or severe haemorrhaging during routine operations.
His youngest victim was a four year old child who survived two cardiac arrests during a tonsil surgery in 2016. The oldest victim was 89.
Addressing the court last week, prosecutors said, “You are Doctor Death, a poisoner, a murderer. You bring shame on all doctors. You have turned this clinic into a graveyard.”
In many cases, the sudden medical emergencies required urgent intervention in the operating theatre. Péchier, investigators said, often stepped in to diagnose the crisis and administer an antidote, allowing him to appear as the patient’s saviour.
However, in 12 cases, he was either unable to intervene or arrived too late, resulting in the patients’ deaths.
Prosecutors argued that Péchier acted out of resentment towards fellow anaesthetists and sought to discredit them. In most of the procedures, he was not the primary anaesthetist and was accused of arriving early to tamper with infusion bags before surgeries began.
Suspicion first arose in 2017 after excessive potassium chloride was discovered in the infusion bag of a woman who suffered a heart attack during back surgery.
Investigators later uncovered a pattern of serious adverse events at the Saint Vincent private clinic in Besançon. While the national average for fatal heart attacks under anaesthetic stood at 1 in 100,000, the rate at the clinic was more than six times higher.
The anomalies reportedly stopped when Péchier temporarily worked at another clinic, which then experienced a rise in similar incidents. When he returned, the emergencies resumed. After he was struck off in 2017, the incidents ceased entirely.
During the trial, Péchier denied responsibility, stating, “I have said it before and I’ll say it again: I am not a poisoner… I have always upheld the Hippocratic oath.”
He will serve a minimum of 22 years in prison and has 10 days to file an appeal.
Following the verdict, survivor Sandra Simard said, “It’s the end of a nightmare.”
Another survivor, Jean Claude Gandon, added, “We can have an easier Christmas now.”
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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