It’s been six years. Six years since Édouard Bourgin exposed the “public health scandal” in La Parisien. In 2019, several patients of Grenoble back surgeon Doctor V. came knocking on the lawyer’s office door to denounce “doctor errors” during their operations.
With serious impacts on their health, some of them had to be amputated and had to use wheelchairs. “I am asking for the dismissal of this surgeon,” the attorney said in 2019, an advocate for patients who say they were victims of the practitioner.
Grenoble lawyers, who now represent around fifty alleged victims, once again asked for the doctor’s dismissal, while the criminal investigation, opened against him in 2020 for 76 cases of “unintentional murder and injury”, is still ongoing. Currently, Doctor V. is charged with ten cases, two of which involve deceased patients.
“I cried with anger. We are once again asking my client to fire this surgeon who should have intervened years ago,” the lawyer said. To justify his request, Me Bourgin relied on the sentence imposed by the civil court against the surgeon.
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“This civil penalty occurred in six different cases. If we add the 54 files identified by social security regarding interventions carried out in 2013 and 2014, and resulting in the surgeon being suspended for three years in 2019, including the one and a half year suspension, announced by the Board of the order, this represents approximately sixty cases of patients who experienced objective abuse,” emphasized the lawyer.
“60 penalties” but no abolition of penalties
The same also brought to the fore a list of complaints: failure of consent, failure of surgical indication, surgical error, failure of postoperative follow-up, failure of informed consent, failure of advice regarding therapeutic alternatives. “How can we explain that after more than ten years of procedures and almost 60 convictions by the national council of the Medical Order, civil courts, and disciplinary bodies, no final decision regarding radiation has been taken against this surgeon?» asked Master Bourgin.
Currently, Doctor V. is prohibited from performing operations but can still provide consultations, as indicated on the website of the Cèdres clinic, in Échirolles, a suburb of Grenoble: “Doctor V.’s expertise is used in the field of pathology of the spine and lower extremities to clarify the diagnosis. »
During a preliminary investigation in 2016 into 54 operations performed by Doctor V. that gave rise to various problems, social security concluded that “patients were operated on without medical reasons, thereby exposing them to unjustified risks.”
When contacted, the national board of the Order of Physicians later concluded that there had been “serious misconduct inconsistent with the obligations owed to all physicians”, and stressed the “extreme seriousness of the identified violations”. A civil court ordered the practitioner to pay significant damages to some of his patients. Up to almost one million euros.
This is the case of Serge G., 69 years old, who was operated on in 2014 by Doctor V. because of his herniated disc. The surgeon placed ten screws in his spine. Some will move. “My bones are too fragile. He should not have operated on me. My nerves were affected. An infection also developed in my spine. Currently, I am in a wheelchair,” said Serge.
In his ruling, the judge of the 6th civil chamber of the Grenoble judicial court considered that “Doctor V.’s error in making the surgical decision as well as the postoperative follow-up was proven” and therefore condemned the doctor and the Cèdres clinic where he operated, to pay Mr. Serge G. the amount of 934,891 euros as compensation for his bodily injuries.
“My life is ruined. I can’t do anything anymore. I’m in a wheelchair or in bed all the time. It’s hell. I’m waiting to die. This surgeon should be fired for the crimes he committed against me,” said Serge.
“This surgeon completely ruined my life”
Ginette Bertholier was operated on in 2015 by Doctor V. At that time she was 81 years old. An operation that experts considered unjustified and caused complications for the elderly woman. Her lower back pain and lower extremity pain worsened, leading to reduced autonomy. With vertigo attacks that cause falls.
In its ruling on October 14, the civil chamber of the Grenoble Court of Appeal declared Doctor V. “responsible for the losses suffered by Madame Ginette Bertholier and ordered him to compensate them”, amounting to 214,645 euros.
“This surgeon completely ruined my life. My back suffered a lot. I couldn’t walk anymore. I was in a wheelchair. I couldn’t get out anymore, I told myself that it would be better for me to end this life. He shouldn’t have operated on me, but he insisted, saying that after that I would be better. I believed him. He shouldn’t play sports anymore, that’s for sure. It should have been abolished a long time ago,” confides Ginette, who is now 91 years old.
The principle of presumption of innocence
Asked, Doctor V.’s lawyer, Me Bernard Boulloud, emphasized that his client “does not practice medicine at the moment, even in consultations”. Last August, Doctor V. requested, before the investigative chamber of the Grenoble Court of Appeal, the possibility of resuming his surgical activity. His appeal was rejected, but the doctor appealed to the Court of Cassation.
During the trial, representatives of the public prosecutor uttered very harsh words against the surgeon: “He performed unnecessary operations, and this, for financial reasons, it must be said. He endangered his patients with serious consequences. »
Maître Bernard Boulloud firmly rejected her accusations, noting that his client was “presumed innocent” and speaking of a disappointing case. The criminal lawyer pointed out that from the initial 76 cases in which the surgeon was charged in 2020, this number dropped “to only about ten convictions”. “And in the civil matter, Doctor V. challenged a decision that was not in his favor in the first place,” his lawyer insisted.
Contacted to find out why the surgeon was not subjected to radiation, the department’s board of the Order of Physicians responded to us via email: “Some procedures are still ongoing, and in accordance with these procedures, we cannot provide a favorable response to your request. »
