Four complaints have been filed by families against the Vosges hospital, after a series of suspicious deaths that occurred in the hospital establishment. A fifth complaint is expected.
The families of the patients who died at the hospital in Remiremont, in the Vosges, are determined to hold the establishment to account, soon to be the target of a fifth complaint after a series of suspicious deaths. “We do this for our loved ones,” they confide.
“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 entered a few days earlier for 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 retraining.
A medical file “riddled with inconsistencies”
She remembers this week when everything changed, after an operation which had nevertheless “gone well”. The condition of his mother, who received a lung transplant a few years earlier, rapidly deteriorated: back pain, transfusion due to anemia, swollen leg, shortness of breath…
The next day, “at 07:30”, the hospital calls: “Our mother is in cardio-respiratory 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 his mother’s last hours will hit “a wall”. They will only obtain with great struggle a medical file “riddled with inconsistencies”.
She denounces “murderous phrases”, as when this health executive, annoyed by her questions, advises her “to call the complaints department”, as if “a handbag” had been lost, the forty-something indignant, who filed a complaint with his three sisters and his father for “manslaughter”.
“No answer” and doctors without empathy
On December 8, 2018, Silvio Zanin also received a call from the same hospital: his wife Claudette, 51, had just died after being admitted three days earlier for severe stomach pains – he was diagnosed with “acute pancreatitis”.
“I found myself alone with my deceased wife. A doctor arrives, he says to me: ‘I don’t know the case, I offer 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 too still does not know, four years later, why his wife died: “We have no answer on what happened”.
Silvio Zanin, who managed to obtain the medical file, also with difficulty, counted “eight errors”. He also denounces remarks that he considers not very empathetic: “a doctor told me ‘I have 42 patients, it’s not case by case, I can’t save everyone’s life'”.
Judicial investigation against X opened for manslaughter
The recent media coverage of the complaints against the Vosges hospital has decided it to take legal action in its turn, several years after the death of Claudette: for the time being, four complaints have been filed, three for involuntary homicide (three women who died between 2020 and 2022) and one for endangering the lives of others.
The Epinal prosecutor’s office also opened a judicial investigation against X for manslaughter.
The complaint of Silvio Zanin and his three children, also for manslaughter, will be the fifth and should be filed next week by Me 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 being created
An “administrative liability procedure” against the establishment is also in preparation, adds Me Risacher, according to which the situation in Remiremont cannot be totally “blamed” for the difficulties of the public hospital in France, “at the agony”.
Asked by AFP, the management of the Vosges hospital declined any request for an interview. In a press release, she said she was “at the entire disposal of the families concerned to receive them and try to provide them with answers”.
A proposal that “comes a little late”, sweeps Angélique Souque. She plans to create with her sisters an association to “bring together people who have experienced the same things”. “We do this for our loved ones, so that they don’t leave for nothing”.
