"Our mother was a warrior. We have no right not to fight for her".

At the mention of her mother, Angélique Souque's eyes mist up: Martine died on July 29 at the Remiremont hospital, south of Epinal, where she had entered a few days earlier for a banal femur fracture.

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.

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.

"Inconsistencies"

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".

A banner claiming "No return to abnormality" hangs in front of the Remiremont hospital, in the Vosges, on December 30, 2022 © Jean-Christophe Verhaegen / AFP

She denounces "murderous phrases", as when this health executive, annoyed by her questions, advises her "to call the claims department", as if "a handbag" had been lost, indignantly the forties, who filed a complaint with his three sisters and his father for "manslaughter".

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 pain - he was diagnosed with "acute pancreatitis".

"I found myself alone with my deceased wife. A doctor arrives, he says to me: + I do not know the case, I offer you my condolences +, and then he left ... And after that, nothing more", remembers this 57-year-old hygiene trainer who lives in Eloyes, between Remiremont and Epinal.

He too still does not know, four years later, why his wife died: "We have no answer on what happened".

Mr. Zanin, who managed to obtain, also with difficulty, the medical file, 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 +".

The recent media coverage of complaints against the Vosges hospital has decided it to take legal action in its turn, several years after Claudette's death: for the time being, four complaints have been filed, three for manslaughter (three women who died between 2020 and 2022) and one for endangering the lives of others.

The Epinal prosecution has also opened a judicial investigation against X for manslaughter.

"Opacity"

The complaint of Mr. Zanin and his three children, also for manslaughter, will be the fifth and should be filed next week by Me Nancy Risacher, who is defending the other relatives.

Me Nancy Risacher, lawyer for the families of patients who died at Remiremont hospital, in her office in Epinal on December 30, 2022 © Jean-Christophe Verhaegen / AFP

"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 “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".

© 2022 AFP