Life Imprisonment for French Physician Known as ‘Doctor Death’

A for­mer anaes­thetist in France has been sen­tenced to life in prison after being found guilty of delib­er­ate­ly poi­son­ing 30 patients, 12 of whom died as a result.

Frédéric Péchi­er, 53, was con­vict­ed on Fri­day fol­low­ing a four-month tri­al in the east­ern French city of Besançon, bring­ing to a close one of the most seri­ous med­ical crime cas­es in the country’s his­to­ry.

The court ruled that Péchi­er inject­ed dan­ger­ous sub­stances — includ­ing potas­si­um chlo­ride and adren­a­line — into patients’ infu­sion bags, trig­ger­ing car­diac arrests or severe haem­or­rhages dur­ing rou­tine sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dures.

Among the vic­tims was a four-year-old child who sur­vived two car­diac arrests dur­ing a ton­sil oper­a­tion in 2016. The old­est patient affect­ed was 89 years old.

Pros­e­cu­tors described Péchi­er as a “poi­son­er” who dis­graced the med­ical pro­fes­sion. “You turned this clin­ic into a grave­yard,” they told the court, accus­ing him of delib­er­ate­ly endan­ger­ing lives to ele­vate his own rep­u­ta­tion.

In many cas­es, Péchi­er was not the lead anaes­thetist. Inves­ti­ga­tors said he would arrive ear­ly at the clin­ic to tam­per with infu­sion bags. When com­pli­ca­tions arose, he often inter­vened him­self, allow­ing him to appear as the doc­tor who saved the patient.

How­ev­er, in 12 instances, he was either unable to inter­vene in time or failed to reverse the dam­age, result­ing in the patients’ deaths.

The pros­e­cu­tion argued that Péchier’s actions were moti­vat­ed by resent­ment toward fel­low anaes­thetists, whom he sought to dis­cred­it. Pat­terns emerged show­ing a sharp increase in unex­plained car­diac inci­dents at the Saint-Vin­cent pri­vate clin­ic dur­ing peri­ods when Péchi­er was present.

While the nation­al aver­age for fatal car­diac arrest under anaes­the­sia in France is about one in 100,000, the rate at Saint-Vin­cent was more than six times high­er. Notably, these inci­dents ceased when Péchi­er left the clin­ic tem­porar­i­ly, only to reap­pear when he returned. After he was barred from prac­tis­ing med­i­cine in 2017, the anom­alies stopped alto­geth­er.

Sus­pi­cion first arose in 2017 when exces­sive lev­els of potas­si­um chlo­ride were dis­cov­ered in the infu­sion bag of a woman who suf­fered a heart attack dur­ing back surgery. Fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion linked Péchi­er to sim­i­lar cas­es dat­ing back to 2008 at two clin­ics in Besançon.

One of the ear­li­est known vic­tims, San­dra Simard, suf­fered car­diac arrest dur­ing spinal surgery but sur­vived after Péchi­er inter­vened. Tests lat­er revealed potas­si­um lev­els 100 times high­er than nor­mal in her infu­sion bag, prompt­ing pros­e­cu­tors to open a crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion.

Through­out the 15-week tri­al, Péchi­er denied poi­son­ing patients, insist­ing he had always respect­ed the Hip­po­crat­ic oath. While he acknowl­edged that poi­son­ings may have occurred, he denied being respon­si­ble.

The court sen­tenced him to life impris­on­ment with a min­i­mum term of 22 years. He remains free to appeal with­in 10 days, which would lead to a retri­al.

Psy­cho­log­i­cal experts described Péchi­er as hav­ing a dual per­son­al­i­ty — out­ward­ly respectable, yet capa­ble of extreme harm. A divorced father of three, he showed lit­tle emo­tion as the ver­dict was read, though his chil­dren were seen in tears.

For sur­vivors, the rul­ing brought long-await­ed clo­sure. “It’s the end of a night­mare,” said San­dra Simard. Anoth­er sur­vivor, Jean-Claude Gan­don, added: “Now we can final­ly have some peace.”