Mulhouse (AFP)
A judicial inquiry was opened following the death in mid-June in Mulhouse of a woman whose employer had called the Samu to report his chest pain, without a vehicle being dispatched, was it learned Saturday at the parquet floor.
This 60-year-old woman was found dead in her bed by a neighbor, ten days after the call to Samu.
In this case, the Mulhouse public prosecutor's office opened on 20 September a judicial inquiry for "non-assistance to person in danger per legal entity", against the regional hospital group Mulhouse-Sud-Alsace (GHRMSA), and for "non-assistance to anyone in danger against X ", in this case the medical regulator of 15 who had taken over the call.
On June 3, the employer of this woman, the director of a Mulhouse agency, had contacted the 15 to report that the victim complained of pain in the arm and ribcage, while the agency came from call him to give him a mission.
"She complained of rib cage pain, intercostal pain, heart and left arm, and she said she could not breathe properly," said the head of the agency who wants to remain anonymous.
The director explains that she stayed in contact with the sexagenarian until she received the call from Samu, but then no medical vehicle was sent to assist her.
The autopsy performed on the body confirmed that the victim had died from cardiac arrest.
In a statement, the hospital said Sunday that "the medical regulatory officer who received this call immediately contacted the patient and then put in touch with the doctor."
"The latter then made a medical decision with regard to the items exchanged during the interview with the patient," the statement said, adding that management is not aware of the opening of a criminal investigation but responded to a preliminary inquiry.
At the end of 2017, a 22-year-old mother, Naomi Musenga, had died in the emergency room of the Strasbourg hospital after being taunted on the phone by a Samu operator, which caused an outcry when the content of this call had been broadcast. Two investigations, judicial and administrative, had been opened.
The emergencies of the Mulhouse hospital, which have been on strike for months like hundreds of other emergency services in France, are facing numerous departures of doctors, exhausted by working conditions.
© 2019 AFP