In Le Havre, a doctor was indicted for having unintentionally caused the death of five elderly patients using Midalozam, a powerful sedative. His wife, an anesthesiologist, was indicted for breach of trust.
Medical scandal in Le Havre. A general practitioner has been indicted for having involuntarily caused the death of five elderly people using Midazolam, a powerful sedative for hospital use, the Le Havre prosecutor’s office announced on November 29. He would have accomplished this with the complicity of his wife, an anesthesiologist. The latter was therefore indicted for breach of trust.
The man was indicted on November 13 for administering a harmful substance that caused death without intention of giving it to vulnerable people. On November 18, the Rouen Court of Appeal decided to ban him from practicing, as well as his wife.
If the accused admitted having prescribed and provided Midazolam to his patients, this “was not part of a process of euthanasia”, he assures. He says he prescribed this drug “to soothe his patients suffering from serious conditions such as cancer or respiratory failure”, according to the press release from the prosecution.
The drug was reportedly presented to families as “a relaxant”
The case dates back to December 2017. “Informed that a doctor, practicing in the area which is under the jurisdiction of the High Court of Le Havre, had delivered to a 93-year-old patient, kept at home and died at the end of 2017, ampoules of Midazolam, the prosecution has opened a preliminary investigation,” said the public prosecutor of Le Havre, François Gosselin, during a press conference.
Midazolam is used to implement deep and continuous sedation until death when stopping treatment authorized by law in the event of “unreasonable obstinacy”. Here, the problem comes from the use of this drug, explains the prosecution. While it is “reserved for hospital use for anxiolytic and hypnotic purposes, in very specific anesthesia protocols”, it would have been “presented to the family as a light relaxant or soporific”, explains François Gosselin, quoted by West France.
The investigators were interested in seven of the doctor’s patients, who died between 2015 and 2019. After exhumation of the bodies, the analyzes concluded that the drug was present in the body of five of them. These people were all over sixty years old and were cared for at home for serious illnesses such as cancer, heart failure or even lung disease.
No family has complained
Thirteen ampoules of Midazolam were then discovered during a search of the doctor’s office, who was immediately taken into custody. For the time being, none of the families of the deceased patients followed by the specialist has filed a complaint or filed a civil action. Despite everything, the man is taking a big risk.
“Administering a harmful substance that has caused death without the intention of giving it to a vulnerable person” is punishable by twenty years of criminal imprisonment, and “the acquisition or disposal of a poisonous substance without proof or compliant registration” can drive up to five years in prison and a fine of €375,000, recalls West France.
“We have no element that allows us to retain the will to kill (…) The debate is the causal link. Did this drug cause death or help to accelerate it on an already serious condition? Or did it have no consequences? There will be very specialized expertise,” concluded François Gosselin with an AFP correspondent. According to Paris-Normandy, who revealed the case, the accused, had never had a problem with the Council of the Order of Physicians during his career.
A few months ago, a investigation of the same kind was opened by the public prosecutor’s office of Besançon after “excess mortality of patients observed” in an Ehpad near Pontarlier, in the Doubs. The investigation will have to determine if there has been an excessive use of Midazolam in the treatment of “Was there euthanasia or not? If so, did it take place within the framework of the Leonetti law”, wondered the prosecutor. And to recall: “The framework of the Leonetti law on the end of life is very precise. It authorizes the use of certain molecules in a protocol associating the family of the patient at the end of life and always requires a double medical opinion, with a view to making a decision.
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