The families of the patients who died at the Remiremont hospital, in the Vosges, are determined to hold the establishment to account, which will soon be the subject of a fifth complaint after a series of suspicious deaths. “We do this for our loved ones,” they trust.
“Our mom was a warrior. We have no right not to fight for her,” says Angélique Souque, her eyes misty.
His mother Martine died on July 29 at the Remiremont hospital, south of Épinal, where she had been admitted a few days earlier due to a trivial fracture of the femur. She was 67 years old.
In the living room of her pavilion in Thaon-les-Vosges, Angélique recently handed over a snapshot of her mother. “Before I couldn’t…”, blows this 44-year-old secretary, currently in recycling.
A medical file “riddled with inconsistencies”
Remember this week in which everything changed, after an operation that, however, “went well”. The condition of her mother, who had received a lung transplant a few years earlier, deteriorated rapidly: back pain, transfusion due to anemia, swollen leg, difficulty breathing…
The next day, “at 07:30”, the hospital calls: “Our mother is in cardiorespiratory arrest, they are trying to revive her”, without much hope. When the relatives arrive at the hospital, the room is “sanitized”, “her things are ready”: Martine is dead.
About what? Five months later, “we still don’t know,” laments Angelique. All attempts to find out about the last hours of her mother will hit “a wall.” They will only obtain with a lot of effort a medical file “riddled with inconsistencies”.
She denounces “murderous phrases”, such as when this health executive, annoyed by her questions, advises her to “call the complaints department”, as if she had lost “a bag”, outraged by the forty-year-old, who filed a complaint with her three sisters and his father for “involuntary manslaughter.”
“No response” and doctors without empathy
On December 8, 2018, Silvio Zanin also received a call from the same hospital: his 51-year-old wife Claudette had just died after being admitted three days earlier for severe stomach pains – she was diagnosed with “acute pancreatitis”.
“I found myself alone with my deceased wife. A doctor arrives, tells me: ‘I don’t know about it, I give you my condolences’, and then he left… And after that, nothing more”, recalls this 57-year-old hygiene trainer who lives in Eloyes, between Remiremont and Épinal .
He also still does not know, four years later, why his wife died: “We have no answer about what happened.”
Silvio Zanin, who managed to obtain the medical file, also with great difficulty, counted “eight errors.” He also denounces comments that he considers little empathetic: “a doctor told me ‘I have 42 patients, it’s not case by case, I can’t save everyone’s life'”.
Open judicial investigation against X for manslaughter
The recent media coverage of the complaints against the Vosges hospital has led to the fact that it, in turn, should file legal proceedings, several years after Claudette’s death: four complaints have been filed so far, three for involuntary manslaughter ( three women who died between 2020 and 2022) and one for endangering the lives of other people.
The Epinal prosecutor’s office also opened a judicial investigation against X for manslaughter.
The complaint by Silvio Zanin and his three children, also for manslaughter, will be the fifth and must be filed next week by Yo Nancy Risacher, who defends the other relatives.
“The common feature of these (five) complaints is the vagueness”, “the opacity” and the “nebulous” side of the hospital’s explanations, believes the lawyer, contacted by other people who could also go to court in this case.
An association of relatives in the process of creation
An “administrative liability procedure” is also being prepared against the establishment, adds Me Risacher, according to which the situation in Remiremont cannot be fully “blamed” for the difficulties of the public hospital in France, “in agony”.
Asked by AFP, the management of the Vosges hospital rejected any request for an interview. In a press release, she said she was “at the entire disposal of the affected families to receive them and try to give them answers.”
A proposal that “arrives a little late”, sweeps Angélique Souque. She plans to create an association with her sisters to “bring together people who have experienced the same things.” “We do this for our loved ones, so they don’t leave in vain.”
Source: BFM TV
