The wife of an emergency doctor, Doctor Eric Loupiac, who died of Covid-19 in April, filed a complaint against X for " manslaughter " and " endangering the lives of others ", AFP has learned with his lawyer and the Lons-le-Saunier prosecutor's office.
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" A preliminary investigation will be opened in the coming days ", told AFP the public prosecutor of Lons-le-Saunier, Lionel Pascal, addressee Monday of Claire Loupiac's complaint.
" Breaches of safety obligations "
Eric Loupiac, 60, worked at Lons-le-Saunier hospital and was a delegate of the Association of Emergency Physicians of France (Amuf) in the Jura. He died on April 23, in intensive care in Marseille where he had wanted to be treated by the teams of Professor Didier Raoult. His wife believes he was infected with the virus at his workplace, his family being confined. She denounces " breaches of the safety obligations incumbent on the hospital and which are the direct cause of the death of Dr Loupiac, " the plaintiff's lawyer, Me Antoine Vey, told AFP. " The hospital had to organize a sorting of people infected with Covid arriving within its walls, in order to avoid contamination of caregivers, and it did not do so, " he maintains.
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Me Vey also notes " the lack of adequate protection for caregivers " who did not have a sufficient number of FFP2 masks, according to him. Poorly protected, they were thus in contact with patients infected with the virus, underlines the lawyer. Dr Loupiac had alerted the hospital's health, safety and working conditions committee (CHSCT) about the lack of FFP2 masks and the need to set up a system for sorting patients outside hospital, adds the lawyer.
While expressing its " concern " with regard to the doctor's family, the management of the Lons-le-Saunier hospital center (CHIJS) for its part assured in a press release that it had organized " in February " , with its teams, " the purchase and distribution of protective equipment, staff training in barrier gestures as well as the establishment of a dedicated network for patients + Covid + suspects from their arrival in the emergency room until their hospitalization ". " These various actions, initiated very early on, have made it possible to contain the epidemic and its spread to patients, residents but also to hospital staff ," she says. According to the management, " less than 25 agents out of the 1450 in the CHIJS have been diagnosed positive, that is to say a rate of contamination lower than the estimated average of the general population ".
