The children of Lucette, 91, are filing a complaint "against X for endangering the lives of others and involuntary injuries" after the death of their mother.
The nonagenarian had stayed briefly in a Korian establishment and had come out of it particularly weakened, and had bruises.
In total, thirty complaints from families of residents targeting Korian group nursing homes were filed with a dozen prosecutors in several regions.
His condition deteriorated in just 15 days.
The children of Lucette, 91, have filed a complaint against the Korian group, which they accuse of having let their mother waste away in a convalescent home near Pau, who died shortly after leaving.
Michel and Geneviève assure us: their nonagenarian mother was in good physical condition for her age before her hospitalization.
Alert and independent, “she walked two afternoons a week to her Golden Age club in Jurançon, played the lottery, did her shopping, cooked and gardened,” recalls her daughter Geneviève.
A fall leads her to the hospital
Until his fall on the night of April 16, 2020 and his hospitalization for a fractured femoral neck.
There followed a waltz between the health establishments: a first one-day visit to the Ossau follow-up care clinic in Gan, belonging to the Korian group, before his rehospitalization for a haemorrhage and urinary infection following the operation.
She will then join for 15 days this convalescent center located in a wooded park, on the heights south of Pau.
In full confinement, they will not be able to see her or speak to her by telephone, “her hearing aids not being recharged”.
The one who had spoken perfectly until now, didn't say a word.
“She no longer walked, no longer ate, only drank through a straw.
His gaze was shifty.
She was unrecognizable, ”continues her eldest.
They also evoke the arms covered with bruises and significant bedsores, especially on the calves.
"When I asked him, 'Mom, were you beaten?
“, she lowered her eyes”, breathes Michel, in a trembling voice.
Very weak on her return home
Back home, Lucette will no longer find her energy before.
“She was clinging to the walker but she was too weak.
His condition was not recoverable, continues Geneviève.
Her physiotherapist was devastated to see her changed in such a short time.
The following days, her condition deteriorated and she was admitted for pleuropneumopathy to the emergency room of the Pau hospital, where she died on June 29.
The family, initially discouraged at the idea of fighting “locally alone against a large group” like Korian, decided to take the plunge after the release of the book
Les Fossoyeurs
by Victor Castanet on the Orpéa scandal.
She approaches Me Sarah Saldmann, at the origin of an action against the groups Orpéa and Korian.
They filed a complaint "against X for endangering the lives of others and involuntary injuries".
An approach carried out neither "out of pity nor for financial reasons".
"On his deathbed, I told him: 'Mom, I will clear your honor,'" continues the son.
They receive similar testimonies from relatives of patients hospitalized in the same clinic.
Reached by AFP, Korian, number 1 in the sector in Europe, indicated "to have been aware of a complaint" but "to ignore the content".
"This affected the establishment's teams," said a spokesperson for the private group.
“We have not been contacted by this family, of course we respect their approach”, she added, before inviting them to join them via the number of their “family relations” service.
In total, thirty complaints from families of residents targeting Korian group nursing homes have been filed with a dozen prosecutors in several regions, according to their advice.
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