An employee of a retirement home in Savoy is suspected of having administered lethal doses of drugs to six residents.
Nine residents poisoned in two months in a retirement home. A caregiver from the accommodation establishment for dependent elderly people (EHPAD) “Le Césalet below” by Jacob-Bellecombette (Savoie) is brought to court on December 12. She was indicted for six fatal poisonings and three attempts.
The case was discovered at the end of November, after the death of the last victim, according to our colleagues at RTL. An 84-year-old resident falls into a coma. Transferred to Chambéry hospital, she died two days later. The next day, her toxicological assessment revealed a strong presence of psychotropic drugs that were not prescribed for the old lady. The management of the hospital center then seized the public prosecutor.
“Relieve suffering”
This December 10, the 30-year-old caregiver was placed in police custody by the judicial police. She is then suspected of having committed this poisoning. The woman finally admits to having committed five more, according to the Parisian. In the end, it will have made nine victims, six of whom died. She would have administered a “drug cocktail” in order to “relieve the suffering of six people who have died since early October,” according to a source close to the investigation. The suspect does not admit having wished to end their life. The prosecutor said during a press briefing that these patients were “not at the end of their life”.
This gloomy affair is a reminder of how vulnerable people living in nursing homes are in the face of mistreatment. In September, a retirement home closed in Bessenay (Rhône) due to numerous accusations. In July, it was an establishment in the Yonne which suffered the same fate and a month earlier, two nursing assistants from an EHPAD in Gisors (Eure) risked imprisonment for violence against residents.
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