A French anaesthetist is sentenced to life for poisoning 30 patients, 12 fatally, in an alleged bid to discredit colleagues at clinics in Besançon.
BESANÇON: A French court has sentenced a doctor to life imprisonment for poisoning 30 patients, 12 of whom died.
Frédéric Pechier (pic), a 53-year-old anaesthetist, was convicted of the poisonings which occurred between 2008 and 2017 at two clinics in the eastern city.
The court heard he allegedly carried out the acts in an attempt to discredit his co-workers.
Patients suffered suspicious cardiac arrests during operations where they were otherwise considered low-risk.
Twelve of those poisoned could not be resuscitated.
Pechier’s youngest alleged victim was a four-year-old boy named Teddy, who survived two cardiac arrests during routine tonsil surgery in 2016.
His oldest alleged victim was 89 years old.
Presiding judge Delphine Thibierge ordered Pechier to be “incarcerated immediately” following the verdict.
Pechier, who had denied any wrongdoing and remained free during the investigation, appeared unmoved by the sentence.
An official probe was launched in 2017 after the cluster of unexplained cardiac arrests.
