Overview
- Judges on Tuesday began examining the Polyclinique de Franche-Comté cases of Bénédicte Boussard, Michel Voniez and Nicole Deblock, all of whom suffered intraoperative cardiac arrest.
- In Deblock’s case, tests on her infusion bag detected excessive adrenaline and potassium, while Péchier was absent for two of the three procedures, which prosecutors say could reflect contamination days earlier.
- Investigators emphasize an epidemiological pattern in which incidents started at Saint‑Vincent in 2008, ceased when Péchier moved to the Polyclinique, reappeared upon his return, and did not occur at the Polyclinique outside his six‑month tenure in 2009.
- Péchier has now acknowledged that some early patients were poisoned, including Damien Iehlen, whose blood showed extraordinarily high lidocaine, yet he denies contaminating any infusion bags.
- Expert testimony remains central and contested, with disagreement over whether Suzanne Ziegler died from lidocaine intoxication, as some experts now argue, or from underlying cardiac disease, as the defendant claims, in a trial set to deliver a verdict on December 19.