A French doctor was arrested for allegedly poisoning 30 of his patients to practice reviving them. 53-year-old Frédéric Péchier is an anesthetist who worked at two clinics in Besançon, France, before his arrest, according to Unilad.
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Doctor Arrested For Allegedly Poisoning Patients To Display Resuscitation Skills
Dozens of his patients began to suffer from sudden cardiac arrest. While investigators suspect 30 patients to have been poisoned, 12 of them died from heart attacks.
Péchier allegedly poisoned them to trigger heart attacks so he could show off his resuscitation skills. This was reportedly done to discredit his colleagues.
One of his victims was as young as four years old, the oldest being 89. The youngest was named Teddy, and he survived two cardiac arrests in 2016 that he suffered during a routine tonsil operation.
This doctor’s trial has finally begun after the authorities first charged him in 2019. If found guilty, Péchier could face life in prison.
Despite the charges, the former anesthetist claims to be innocent and said there was “no proof of any poisoning” on French radio, per the BBC.
How Doctor Allegedly Poisoned 30 Patients For Years
Investigators believe Péchier allegedly poisoned his victims by injecting toxins into the patients’ IV bags. Not only that, but a total of 170 witnesses and experts plan to appear in court to testify against the doctor.
There are still several victim stories to prove these charges. 36-year-old Sandra Simard was a healthy patient undergoing a spine surgery. Suddenly, her heart stopped beating, and when an ICU physician failed at resuscitating her, Péchier gave her an injection. Simard survived after going into a coma.
Investigators then found that her IV drugs contained potassium concentrations that were 100 times the normal dose. These similar events have been happening for years, even dating back to 2008. Several of the 12 cases of patients who died couldn’t be explained.
One of the victim’s daughter spoke up about how this has changed her family’s life. “It’s appalling. You cannot imagine the effect it’s had on my family,” said Amadine, the daughter of the doctor’s first dead victim, Damien Iehlen.
“It’s unthinkable this could happen and that so many people were affected for so many years, from 2008 to 2017.”
This trial plans to continue until December.