Biker boots, weathered skin, prankish eyes, Doctor Arthur Kratzer could have played a serial character. And his career has enough anecdotes to last several seasons. The GP spent 26 years in prison. “A long sentence,” he smiles. He treated detainees at the Metz-Queleu remand center. He started there very young, when he settled down. But he never left this environment. He also intervened with people in an irregular situation at the administrative detention center, with minors taken in charge by the judicial protection of youth. He worked at the alcohol center in Metz and Thionville for twenty years. He just stopped.
At 70, his hair short and white, he still consults in his office in Metz, Sablon district. But he quickly feels cramped behind the desk. He always takes care, in parallel, of a marginalized, weakened, withdrawn public. In particular, he follows the patients of the Lits halte Soins Santé system, managed by the Est accompaniment association in Metz and by Athenes in Thionville. There he meets homeless patients, injured or under treatment, coming out of prison, plagued by addictions, who need to get back on their feet. “It drives me, he justifies. I like to change places. The doctor travels exclusively on a motorbike, “except when it snows”.
He fails to explain why he preferred this path, treating those who cannot be seen. Dr. Kratzer does not ask the question elsewhere. “It’s an audience that I’m used to frequenting,” he replies. “I never applied for anything, people always came to flirt with me,” he slips, amused.
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Held hostage twice
He flirted with the inmates of Queuleu where he had taken up residence. “We thicken over time,” he confirms in his hoarse voice. He imposed himself. He earned respect. He never judged. Arthur Kratzer notably took care of Francis Heaulme. “A serial killer or a pedophile, he will have the same care. »
This extraordinary GP was twice taken hostage by patients. “A girl had swallowed parquet wax. She pulled out a fork threatening to kill me. I told him that I had to call the poison control center first, ”says the prison doctor. “Ten minutes later, I put away the fork myself,” he continues. The second time, he was in his office. “A patient pulled out a shotgun. He told me he was going to kill someone today. He pointed the gun at his head and then at me. The patient was alcoholic. “I finally managed to take the gun from him, I put it away in my drawer. I ran into this man again later in prison. He said to me: “I warned you that I was going to kill someone, doctor”. It took 20 years. »
Even if he no longer consults at the remand center, his sustained gaze and his contained smile marked “the thugs”. “When they left, some took me on as a doctor. “One evening, a former prisoner tried to steal his two-wheeler in Metz. He quickly changed his mind. “I was leaving the restaurant with friends. There was a guy on my motorcycle. The thief recognized him. He apologized and then left, greeting him.
Doctor Kratzer – husband, grandpa, father of three daughters – eases up a bit even if he doesn’t really see the point. He doesn’t show it but he works on affect, on exchange, on contact. When he’s finished, he lights a cigarillo, puts on his jacket, gets on his motorbike. And to say that he wanted to be a vet.
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