A former French anaesthetist accused of fatally poisoning 12 patients to ‘show off his resuscitation skills’ insisted ‘I’m not a poisoner’ in court.
Frédéric Péchier allegedly polluted the IV bags of dozens of people at two clinics in Besançon between 2008 and 2017.
Prosecutors Thérèse Brunisso and Christine de Curraize claim the doctor would introduce potassium, local anaesthetics, adrenaline, or heparin into IV bags, which were then given to patients.
The poisoned bags would then trigger cardiac arrests or haemorrhages, the court heard.
Throughout his trial, which first began in September, Péchier has fiercely denied the allegations made against him.
Before the proceedings closed today, Dr Péchier, who claims he has respected his oath as a health professional, said: ‘I will say it and always will say it: no, I am not a poisoner.
‘For eight years, I have been fighting against being portrayed as a poisoner.’
He was first investigated in 2017, when an otherwise healthy 36-year-old patient had surgery on her spine, where her heart stopped beating.
After an intensive care physician failed to revive her, Dr Péchier gave her an injection, and the patient went into a coma.
Potassium concentrations 100 times higher than the expected dose were shown in the intravenous drugs used to treat her, which raised the alarm to prosecutors.
Within a few days, another incident happened where the anaesthetist claimed to have found three bags of paracetamol that had been tampered with after he had given a general anaesthetic.
Other events dating back to 2008, involving patients as young as four and as old as 89, were also investigated.
In 2009, three patients with no history of heart disease had to be resuscitated at the Franche-Comté Polyclinic during minor operations.
The first fatality was 53-year-old Damien Iehlen in October 2008, who died from cardiac arrest during a routine kidney operation.
A potentially lethal dose of the drug lidocaine was found in tests after his death.
Prosecutors allege that Dr Péchier was the ‘common denominator’ in all of the poisoning cases.
For more than three months, the Doubs Assize Court has heard police investigations, medical expertise, and moving testimonies of the alleged victims and their families.
The prosecution is seeking life imprisonment for Péchier, with a minimum of 22 years, portraying him as a ‘serial killer’, guilty of having ‘transformed a clinic into a cemetery.’
They have also asserted that the accused is ‘one of the greatest criminals in history’ who ‘used medicine to kill.’
However, his defence lawyer, Randall Schwerdorffer, is trying to sow doubt in the jury’s mind about his client’s guilt in ‘the trial of a lifetime’ and wants to try to obtain an acquittal.
Referring to the lack of empathy the doctor has been accused of, the lawyer said: ‘The question is not: ‘Do we like Frédéric Péchier, do we not like him, does he cry or does he not cry?’
He insisted that ‘we need evidence’ as ‘we are not here to prejudge someone, we are here to judge them.’
Dr Péchier’s verdict is expected to be delivered by Friday.
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