Frédéric Péchier, 53, an anaesthetist at Besançon Clinics Saint-Vincent Clinic and the Franche-Comté Polyclinic in France, has gone on trial for allegedly poisoning 30 patients between 2008 and 2017.
Péchier has been accused of tampering with colleagues’ anesthesia pouches in an effort to create emergencies in operation rooms and show off by resuscitating patients.
The patients were between the ages of 4 and 89. The youngest victim, Teddy, underwent a routine tonsil operation in 2016 where he suffered two cardiac arrests. He survived.
It is thought that Frédéric Péchier’s crimes began in 2008, but it wasn’t until 2017 that an investigation began. THis came after 36-year-old Sandra Simard suffered a cardiac arrest during an operation. An intensive care physician failed to revive her so Péchier stepped in and administered an injection. She survived. Afterwards a potentially lethal dose of potassium was then found in a bag of saline used for her anesthesia.
Péchier has blamed “medical errors” by his colleagues for the majority of the alleged poisonings.
Prosecutor Etienne Manteaux said “What he is accused of is poisoning healthy patients in order to harm colleagues with whom he was in conflict.”
Of the 30 patients allegedly poisoned, 12 died. The first of which is believed to be 53-year-old Damien Iehlen in October 2008. He died after going into cardiac arrest during a routine kidney operation. Tests confirmed he had been given a potentially lethal dose of lidocaine.
Frédéric Péchier has not practiced medicine since 2017, when the investigation began, and through the 8-year investigation he has been under judicial supervision.
Péchier said he was “apprehensive” about the trial but that he had “strong arguments and i’m not going into it reluctantly.”
When asked about the families suffering he said: “I understand it completely, but on the other hand, I am not responsible for their distress.”
The trail started on September 8th, 2025 and is expected to last until December. If found guilty Péchier faces life imprisonment.
