Besancon (AFP)

New complaint against Samu in the east of France: the family of a retiree from Belfort, who died at the age of 62 from a heart attack despite five urgent appeals to 15, has filed a lawsuit for "manslaughter", denouncing deadlines and conditions of intervention.

This complaint is the latest in a series of proceedings against Samu, after the outcry caused by the death in late 2017 Naomi Musenga emergency Strasbourg: this young woman of 22 years had been taunted on the phone by an operator of Samu while she was dying. Other procedures were then initiated in Nancy, Colmar and Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin).

This time, the complaint concerns the 15, the center responsible for receiving emergency calls. Registered at the police station in Belfort on September 16, it is however "not yet reached" the prosecutor's office, told AFP the prosecutor of Belfort, Eric Plantier.

The facts occurred on Saturday, September 14: Edith Greffier, a former city hall employee, is uncomfortable at his home in La Chapelle-sous-Chaux (Territoire-de-Belfort), in the presence of members of his family.

His daughter, Anne-Sophie Forni-Greffier, testified: "I called for the first time on (...) 15 at 15H22, clearly explaining the symptoms of my mother: sweating, persistent pain in the left arm, vomiting, difficulty to breathe "but" I was told that there was an outbreak of gastroenteritis, which was wrong, and that they sent me an ambulance within the hour ".

- "Cardiac arrest" -

After a second call for help, her mother's health deteriorates rapidly, to the point of cardiac arrest. Mrs. Greffier-Forni then makes a third call, at 15:52, to the 15 who decides to "trigger the SMUR (Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Service, ed) at 15:55," told AFP CHU Besançon.

A private ambulance "arrived at 15:59, she had not even been warned by the 15 that my mother was in cardiac arrest", indignant the girl of the sexagenarian. "The Samu (SMUR vehicle, ed) finally arrived at 16:17, almost an hour after" the first call, says Ms. Greffier-Forni, whose mother will die at the hospital in Belfort-Montbéliard.

For her, things are clear: the relief did not take the measure of the urgency of the situation and a faster care could have saved her mother.

"The various stages of the process of care (by the 15) were fully respected by the staff involved who acted with professionalism", defends in a statement the CHU Besançon, which manages the 15. According to the establishment, the first ambulance is "arrived at the family's home after a 20-minute ride".

The Regional Health Agency (ARS) Burgundy-Franche-Comté, who told AFP have "received a letter at the end of October" from Ms. Greffier-Forni in which she wondered "on the conditions of taking charge of his mother ", continues" the instruction of the file "and" will bring a response very soon to the interested ".

- "Public confessions" -

"The decision to hire an ambulance was made from the first call" and that to send a Smur "as soon as there were criteria of severity especially cardiac arrest", reported Thursday on RTL Dr Francois Braun, president of Samu-urgences de France, while conceding that "it takes time" at the Smur "to arrive".

Two months after the death of her mother, Ms. Greffier-Forni does not regret: "I wish public confessions of lack of care in the situation that we have lived, and the misdiagnosis of diagnosis of the person online, "she says.

Three weeks before the death of Ms. Forni, that of Joel Richart, a 49-year-old man who died on August 24, had once again cast doubt on emergency services. According to the complaint lodged in mid-September at the office of Colmar by his brother and the AFP received a copy, a roommate of the patient had called the Samu, seeing "screaming in pain", without the regulator dispatches team at his bedside.

This father of two had to die a few hours later from an intestinal obstruction.

"Does it seem normal to you that in France, in 2019, after having contacted the 15th, one can die of this pathology?" Asked his brother in a letter to the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn.

© 2019 AFP