The photo was estimated at 2,776 dollars on the site. It represented an X-ray of the arm of a Bataclan survivor. A surgeon judged for having broadcast this image on an NFT site (digital certificates) recognized this Wednesday before the Paris Criminal Court “a moral fault”, but “not professional”.
Emmanuel Masmejean, a renowned orthopedic surgeon at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, is being prosecuted for breach of medical secrecy, misappropriation of the purpose of personal data processing and willful unlawful disclosure of harmful personal data. He is accused of having published on a site selling digital objects NFT a photo of the radio of a woman injured at the Bataclan during the attacks of November 13. We see a forearm pierced by a Kalashnikov bullet.
“An extremely painful moment” for the victim
The surgeon had accompanied the picture with a comment indicating that “this young patient” had “lost her boyfriend in this attack”, or “elements of the patient’s private life”, noted the president of the court. His trial opened on Wednesday and was postponed until September 28 after three hours of heated debate because the courtroom had to be released for an immediate appearance.
“The story of this radio, which had been sleeping in my cupboard for six years, was an extremely painful moment, physically and psychologically afterwards,” said the survivor, who wishes to remain anonymous, adding that she had since had to take anxiolytics again. and therapy sessions. “I was finally better and at that time this radio reappeared”, she lamented at the bar, wondering about the intention of her surgeon.
A “significant and historic” medical snapshot
The doctor, who reiterated his apologies to him, motivated his gesture by the desire to carry out “an experiment”, in this case to publish a “significant and historic” medical snapshot on a blockchain. “I made a mistake, a clumsiness, but in my opinion no professional misconduct. There is no mercantile aspect”, defended Emmanuel Masmejean, who conceded “a moral fault” for not having requested the authorization of the survivor.
The photo, estimated at 2,776 dollars on the site, was published in September 2021, when the trial of the jihadist attacks which left 130 dead in Paris and Saint-Denis on November 13, 2015 opened.
20 million users
Professor Masmejean, suspended from duty and on sick leave, had posted the snapshot on an American site dedicated to NFT (non-fungible token) works, named Opensea. The image also ended up on Showtime, a “social digital art network”, created by the son of Emmanuel Masmejean.
The Opensea site is used by 20 million users, the president of the court recalled on Wednesday.