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A former anesthetist has been sentenced to life in France Poison 30 patients, 12 of whom died.
Frédéric Pechier was found guilty of contaminating infusion bags with substances that caused heart failure or bleeding, by a court of the city of Besançon.
His youngest victims included a four-year-old boy. Child Joe survived two cardiac arrests following routine tonsil surgery, while his oldest victim was 89 years old.
The medical professional – once seen as a “star anaesthetist” by colleagues – was first investigated in 2018 on suspicion of poisoning patients at two clinics in Besançon between 2008 and 2017.
He was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison and had 10 days to launch an appeal which could see the case reopened within the next year.
State prosecutors called him “one of the biggest criminals in the history of the French legal system.”
Sandra Simard, 36, was said to be his first known victim when she experienced sudden cardiac arrest in the middle of spine surgery. Pechier intervened to save her life but Simard later fell into a coma. Tests of her infusion bag showed potassium concentrations 100 times higher than expected, raising concerns.
“My whole body is in pain. It feels like I live in an old person’s body,” she said while using a cane in court. “But I can’t complain, because at least I’m alive.”
During his trial, which lasted more than three months, Pechier admitted that the patients may have been poisoned, but he denied any involvement.
Péchier has consistently denied any wrongdoing: “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am not a poisoner… I have always upheld the Hippocratic Oath.”
Prosecutors called him “Doctor Death”, saying: “You are Doctor Death, the poisoner, the murderer. You put all doctors to shame. You have turned this clinic into a cemetery.”
State prosecutor Christine de Curise called him a “serial killer” and “extremely disfigured.” As the son of an anesthetist, he reportedly had a privileged upbringing.
According to state prosecutors, he is accused of portraying himself as a hero by poisoning the victims and then reviving them.
Investigators looked at more than 70 reports of “serious adverse events,” sudden and unexpected negative events during medical procedures.
The father of the four-year-old victim, now 14, said: “What happened to us is a nightmare. We trusted the medicine and we feel betrayed.”