French ‘Doctor Death’ who poisoned patients jailed for life

A former anesthesiologist has been sentenced to life in prison for deliberately poisoning 30 patients, 12 of whom died.

A court in the eastern French city of Besançon found Frédéric Péchier guilty of contaminating infusion bags with substances that caused cardiac arrest or bleeding.

His youngest victim, a four-year-old boy, survived two heart attacks during a routine tonsillectomy in 2016. The oldest victim was 89 years old.

Last week, prosecutors said, “You are Doctor Death, a poisoner, a murderer. You bring shame to all doctors.” “You turned this clinic into a graveyard.”

Péchier was first investigated eight years ago, when he was suspected of poisoning patients at two clinics in Besançon between 2008 and 2017.

His first known victim, Sandra Simard, was 36 when she suffered a sudden heart attack in the middle of spinal surgery. Although he fell into a coma, he survived thanks to Péchier’s intervention.

Tests on the infusion bags showed potassium concentrations 100 times the expected dose, and local prosecutors were alarmed.

During the 15-week trial, Péchier sometimes acknowledged that some of the patients who fell ill or died may have been poisoned, but denied any wrongdoing.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am not a poisoner… I have always been faithful to the Hippocratic oath,” he said.

Péchier, who was free throughout the trial, will now spend at least 22 years behind bars.

He has 10 days to appeal, which would require a second hearing within a year.