dear ones in search of the truth

“We are doing it for our loved ones”: the families of patients who died at the Remiremont hospital (Vosges) are determined to call the institution into question, soon to be the subject of a fifth complaint after a series of suspicious deaths.

“Our mother was a warrior. We have no right not to fight for her.” At the mention of her mother, Angélique Souque’s eyes cloud over: Martine died on July 29 at the Remiremont hospital, south of Epinal, where she had entered a few days before her from a simple femur fracture. She was 67 years old.

In the living room of her pavilion in Thaon-les-Vosges, Angélique recently delivered a snapshot of her mother. “Before I couldn’t…”, blurts out this 44-year-old secretary, currently in retraining.

Remember this week in which everything changed, after an operation that “went well”. The condition of her mother, who had received a lung transplant a few years earlier, worsened rapidly: back pain, transfusions 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 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 discover her mother’s last hours will hit “a wall”. They will only obtain with great effort a medical record “full of inconsistencies”.

She denounces “homicidal phrases”, such as when this health manager, annoyed by her questions, advises her to “call the complaints office”, as if “a handbag” had been lost, indignant the 40-year-old, 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 hospitalized three days earlier with severe stomach pain – he had been diagnosed with “acute pancreatitis”.

“I ended up alone with my late wife. A doctor arrives, tells me: + I don’t know the case, I offer you my condolences +, and then he left… And after that, nothing more”, recalls this 57-year-old hygiene instructor who lives in Eloyes, between Remiremont and Epinal.

Even he still doesn’t know, four years later, why his wife died: “We have no answer about what happened”.

Mr. Zanin, who managed to obtain the medical record, even with difficulty, counted “eight errors”. He also denounces observations that he considers not very empathetic: “a doctor told me + I have 42 patients, it’s not a case by case, I can’t save everyone’s life +”.

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

The Epinal prosecutor’s office has also opened a judicial inquiry against X for manslaughter.

– “Opacity” –

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

“The common feature of these (five) complaints is the vagueness”, “opacity” and the “hazy” side of the hospital’s explanations, believes the lawyer, contacted by other people who could go to court in this case too.

An “administrative liability proceeding” against the establishment is also being prepared, adds Me Risacher, according to whom the situation in Remiremont cannot be wholly “blamed” for the difficulties of the public hospital in France, “in agony”.

When questioned by AFP, the management of the Vosges hospital refused any request for an interview. In a statement, he said he was “at the complete disposal of interested families to receive them and try to provide them with answers”.

A proposal that “arrives a little late”, overwhelms Angélique Souque. She plans to create an association with her sisters to “bring together people who have gone through the same things”. “We do it for our loved ones, so they don’t go away at all.”