Trial starts on French cancer radiation scandal

26 September, 2012

Two French doctors and a radio-physicist are on trial for manslaughter and. They are charged with giving radiation overdose, which nearly affected 450 cancer patients, besides trying to destroy the evidence to cover up the mistake.

NEARLY SEVEN people died due to overdose of radiation, which was about 20 percent more than the required. Another 424 patients have suffered severe internal burns from the radiation, which was about 8-10 percent higher than the required amount. All these patients were being treated for prostrate cancer at the Jean Monnet hospital in Epinal, in the North East France during 2001 to 2006.

Doctors Jean-François Sztermer, 64, and Michel Aubertel, 62, and the radiologist Joshua Anah, 54, are the accused in this case, along with some other health officials of the hospital. Many patients are expected to give evidence in this case.

“I was given an overdose of radiation in 1993, and you will understand from people why they made these decisions. Babies wear nappies for few months, but I used them for 19 years. As you can imagine it is not very pleasant,” said one of the victims, Francis Bretenoux.

Gérard Welzer, lawyer for some of the patients said, "It's a sign that you cannot destroy people's lives without explanation, and so that it doesn't happen again,"adding, "There wasn't just the error, there was the desire to hide it."

Jean Renhart, the lawyer of one of the accused Joshua Anah's lawyer, said, “We are expecting to bring all the truth and uncover the responsibilities of his own as well as others. And help the court understand what happened.” He also said that his client has great deal of compassion towards the victims, according to AFP.