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"Doctor Death"/ French doctor who poisoned patients sentenced to life in prison

2025-12-18 15:00:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"Doctor Death"/ French doctor who poisoned patients sentenced to life

A former anaesthetist has been sentenced to life in prison for deliberately poisoning 30 patients, 12 of whom died. Frédéric Péchier, 53, was convicted on Friday at the end of a four-month trial in the eastern city of Besançon.

In one of France's biggest medical malpractice cases, Péchier was found to have inserted chemicals such as potassium chloride or adrenaline into patients' IV bags. His youngest victim, a four-year-old child, survived two cardiac arrests during a routine tonsillectomy in 2016. The oldest victim was 89 years old.

"You are Doctor Death, a poisoner, a murderer. You disgrace all doctors. You have turned this clinic into a graveyard," prosecutors said last week.

The chemicals Péchier added caused cardiac arrest or hemorrhage in patients, requiring emergency intervention in the operating room. This was often provided by Péchier himself, who was then able to pose as the patient's savior. But in 12 cases he was unable to intervene, or it was too late.

The prosecution argued that Péchier acted intentionally to discredit fellow anaesthetists against whom he held a grudge. In most of the operations, he was not the lead anaesthetist. It was alleged that he had arrived early at the clinic to manipulate the infusion bags. Then, when things went wrong, he was able to intervene after diagnosing the problem and ordering an antidote.

Péchier first came under investigation eight years ago, when he was suspected of poisoning patients at two clinics in Besançon between 2008 and 2017. The alarm was raised in 2017 after an excess of potassium chloride was found in the infusion bag of a woman who suffered a heart attack while undergoing surgery for a back problem.

Investigators found a pattern of “serious adverse events” at the private Saint-Vincent clinic in Besançon. While the national average for fatal heart attacks under anesthesia was 1 in 100,000, at the clinic it was more than six times higher. And in most cases nationally, an explanation for the heart attack was later found, while at Saint-Vincent the cause remained a mystery. It was also found that the “serious adverse events” stopped when Péchier left for a short period to work at another clinic, which itself saw an increase. Then, when he returned to Saint-Vincent, emergencies resumed there. When he was disbarred in 2017, the anomaly stopped.

Péchier's first known victim, Sandra Simard, was 36 years old when she suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in the middle of a spinal operation. She survived thanks to Péchier's intervention, although she fell into a coma. Tests on the infusion bags showed potassium concentrations 100 times higher than the expected dose, and the alarm was raised to local prosecutors. During the 15-week trial, Péchier sometimes admitted that some of the patients who fell ill or died may have been poisoned, but he denied any wrongdoing.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am not a poisoner... I have always kept the Hippocratic oath," he declared.

Péchier will now spend at least 22 years behind bars, having been free throughout the trial. He has 10 days to file an appeal, which would require a retrial within a year.

According to the trial prosecutor: "His colleagues said he always seemed to have the answer. That he made himself the best, that he created this savior persona so that colleagues would instinctively turn to him."

Péchier denied the charges and his lawyers argued that there was no hard evidence linking him to the crimes. But his testimony changed during the trial and he admitted that there must have been a free poisoner at the clinic, but it wasn't him.

The son of two parents in the medical profession, Péchier was described by a court psychologist as having a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality, on the one hand respectable, on the other capable of causing great harm. In 2014 and again in 2021 he attempted suicide.

A divorced father of three, he told the court before the verdict that his only concern was protecting his family. His children cried as the verdict was read, but he remained steadfast.

"It's the end of a nightmare," said survivor Sandra Simard.

Another patient who survived, Jean-Claude Gandon, said: "Now we can have an easier Christmas."/ CNA, translated by BBC