Former French Anaesthetist "Doctor Death" Jailed for Life After Killing 12 Patients
A former French anaesthetist, Frédéric Péchier, has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of poisoning 30 patients, leading to 12 deaths over the course of nearly a decade. Péchier, 53, was found guilty after a lengthy trial in Besançon, in eastern France. The crimes took place between 2008 and 2017, primarily in private clinics, where Péchier gained a reputation as a highly skilled anaesthetist.
The charges stem from Péchier’s deliberate contamination of patients’ infusion bags with chemicals like potassium chloride and adrenaline, which ttriggered cardiac arrests or haemorrhages in the victims, often requiring immediate intervention. In many cases, Péchier was the one to "save" them, allowing him to pose as a hero. However, 12 patients could not be revived, and they died under his care.
His youngest known victim was a four-year-old child who survived two cardiac arrests during a routine tonsil surgery in 2016. The oldest was 89. Péchier's actions were revealed when unusual patterns of adverse events, including multiple cardiac arrests, were noticed at the clinics where he worked. Investigators traced these events back to him, revealing a pattern of medical supplies being tampered with.
Péchier's motivations appeared to be complex, with prosecutors suggesting he poisoned patients to discredit colleagues he was in competition with as he was not the primary anaesthetist in many of the cases, so the blame would not immediately be pointed towards him, while also enjoying the power of "saving" the very patients he had harmed. State prosecutor Christine de Curraize described Péchier as a "serial killer," adding that he "used medicine to kill."
Despite overwhelming evidence, Péchier continued to deny the charges, claiming he was not a poisoner and had always upheld the Hippocratic oath. His defence team argued that no direct proof linked him to the deaths. However, his inconsistent testimony and his gradual admission that there must have been a poisoner at large in the clinic only added to the suspicion surrounding him.
In a court hearing that included emotional testimony from several of his victims, Péchier was described as a man with a dual personality—one that was respectable and the other capable of immense harm. "You are Doctor Death, a poisoner, a murderer. You bring shame on all doctors," prosecutors told him.
The case has left many shaken, particularly the family of Tedy, the four-year-old who was poisoned during surgery. His father, Hervé Hoerter Tarby, said in court: "What happened to us is a nightmare. We trusted medicine and we feel betrayed." Tedy, now 14, was too traumatized to testify but expressed his suffering in a written statement, reflecting on the lasting impact the poisoning had on his life.
Péchier, whose father was also an anaesthetist, will serve a minimum of 22 years behind bars, though he has 10 days to appeal the decision. Survivors and their families, however, have expressed relief that the nightmare is over. For them, justice has been served, but the emotional scars will last a lifetime.
