France’s ‘Doctor Death’ jailed for life after poisoning 30 patients while working as anaesthetist

A former anaesthetist in France has been jailed for life after poisoning 30 patients, including 12 who died.

Frédéric Péchier was found guilty of contaminating infusion bags with substances that caused cardiac arrest or haemorrhaging, by a court in the city of Besançon.

His youngest victims included a four-year-old child who survived after two cardiac arrests following routine tonsil surgery, while his oldest victim was aged 89.

The medical professional – once seen by colleagues as a “star anaesthetist” – was first investigated in 2018 on suspicion of poisoning patients at two clinics in Besançon between 2008 and 2017.

He was sentenced to at least 22 years in jail and has 10 days to launch an appeal that could relaunch the case within the next year.

State prosecutors called him “one of the biggest criminals in the history of the French legal system”.

Sandra Simard, 36, is said to have been his first known victim after she experienced a sudden cardiac arrest in the middle of spine surgery. Péchier intervened to save her life but Simard later went into a coma. Tests on her infusion bags showed 100 times the expected concentrations of potassium, raising the alarm.

“My whole body is in pain. It’s as if I live in the body of an old person,” she said in court, using a walking stick. “But I can’t complain, because at least I’m alive.”

During his trial, which lasted over three months, Péchier acknowledged patients may have been poisoned but denied involvement.

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Péchier has persistently denied any wrongdoing: “I have said it before and I'll say it again: I am not a poisoner... I have always upheld the Hippocratic oath.”

Prosecutors called him “Doctor Death”, saying: “You are Doctor Death, a poisoner, a murderer. You bring shame on all doctors. You have turned this clinic into a graveyard.”

State prosecutor Christine de Curraize called him a “serial killer” and “highly twisted”. He is reported to have had a privileged upbringing as the son of an anaesthetist himself.

He is alleged to have poisoned victims in order to then pose as a hero by resuscitating them, according to state prosecutors.

Investigators looked into over 70 reports of “serious adverse events”, sudden and unexpected negative occurrences during medical procedures.

The father of the four-year-old victim, who is now aged 14, said: “What happened to us is a nightmare. We trusted medicine and we feel betrayed.”