Three practitioners from the Epinal hospital were sentenced to three years in prison and banned from practicing, after the accidental over-irradiation of more than 400 people.
The doctors and the radiophysicist, condemned in the case of the irradiated persons of Epinal, escape the closed prison. The Paris Court of Appeal decided this Thursday to reduce the sentence of the three men initially provided for 4 years in prison and 18 months, to 3 years suspended. The court also confirmed that the three men were guilty of manslaughter and unintentional injury.
In addition, the two doctors, Jean-François Sztermer, 66, and Michel Aubertel, 64, no longer have the right to practice their profession, as well as the radiophysicist, Joshua Anah, 57. In view of the “culpable breaches” and the “seriousness of the errors committed”, the judges considered that the 3 men should be sentenced to the same penalties. A court decision that ends an 8-year fight for the victims.
A dozen deaths
Between 2001 and 2006, nearly 450 patients at Epinal hospital, treated for prostate cancer, had been exposed to over-radiation. The cause: errors in handling and adjusting radiotherapy equipment. Since then, a dozen of these patients have died, and many more are suffering from serious after-effects.
According to a report from the Nuclear Safety Agency (ASN) and the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS), a chain of failures had been brought to light. Dilapidated buildings, organizational difficulties in the service which delegated the monitoring of patients to non-specialist doctors and technicians with little or no training in English software, were in particular to blame.
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