A preliminary investigation is underway following the denunciation by one of his colleagues of a surgeon at the Gap hospital who would have performed certain operations without the green light from the health authorities, the prosecution said on Tuesday (October 27th).
Read also: In the footsteps of Joël Le Scouarnec, the surgeon suspected of hundreds of pedophile attacks
Asked by AFP, the prosecutor of the Republic of Gap Florent Crouhy said he opened this preliminary investigation in early 2019 for "
biomedical research without obtaining the favorable opinion of the committee for the protection of persons or the authorization of the Agency national drug safety
"and"
biomedical research on a person without their consent
".
The investigation was entrusted to the Marseille branch of the Central Office for the Fight against Attacks on the Environment and Public Health (OCLAESP), added the prosecutor, confirming information from RTL radio.
The doctor who denounced these practices that he considers illegal also seized the Regional Health Agency (ARS), which ordered an inspection, and the Council of the Order of Physicians.
The investigation must determine if "the operations carried out by the surgeon incriminated are likely to constitute criminal offenses of public health", explained the prosecutor.
At this stage, the surgeon "
is presumed innocent and none of these patients complained of the operations undergone when some are already old,
" said Mr. Crouhy.
Read also: Investigation into doctors prescribing antibiotics for autism
According to RTL, this "
specialist in the spine (the spine) would have experimented on 87 patients with a new technique, 'disc cementoplasty', outside any legal framework
".
In France, cement can be injected (in fact a kind of resin) into weakened vertebrae to strengthen them, but not directly into the discs of the column.
There can be cement leaks and complications in the nerves and arteries as well as a risk to life in the event of bleeding.
In addition, the prosecutor specifies that several complaints have been filed for harassment and threats against the author of the accusations against his colleague.
Other parallel preliminary inquiries are underway concerning him.
