“Now it has been three years, we would like the trial to come quickly. We are fed up. What we hear in the media, it makes us go back to hatred, ”acknowledges Alain Lapeyre. This inhabitant of Saubens, south of Toulouse, lost his mother Antoinette on the night of March 31 to April 1, 2019, who died like four other residents of the Ehpad de la Chêneraie, at Lherm, from intoxication.
The judicial investigation opened by the Toulouse prosecutor’s office for “aggravated manslaughter, aggravated involuntary injury, endangering the lives of others” had quickly pointed to breaches of hygiene rules, in particular on the cleanliness of a blender.
But it also revealed other dysfunctions in this establishment bought two months earlier by the Korian group. In particular the breaking of the cold chain, but also of the heat. To go up to the rooms, the dishes are placed in a locker, called a “ladder”, in order to keep them at a certain heat and prevent bacteria from developing.
A group of victims has formed
But that of the residence of La Chêneraie did not work. Much to the chagrin of the staff members who had requested his replacement. “That’s what the survey told us. The health services had gone three weeks or a month before the tragedy occurred. The thermometers were broken, nothing was respected. There had been a warning, but when the deaths occurred, nothing had been done. The thermometers were not returned, the meals were served cold, ”laments Alain Lapeyre.
Beside him, Alexandra Bernard, who lost her grandmother Geneviève that day, does not take off. With her sister, she regularly went to the retirement home to see her “granny” and ensure that she had a hot meal. “If the meals are served cold in the room, by the time it goes upstairs, as there are only two people for 80 residents, people eat cold and it proliferates,” she says. Bacteria that were indeed found on the plates afterwards.
A tragedy that could have been avoided according to her. “There was an internal notebook for staff requests. There were purchase requests that were not made. At the time of the takeover, was there a period of uncertainty between the two groups? “Asks the one who has set up a collective of victims with other relatives.
An audit had “shown no malfunctions”
Alain thinks that the change of owner has had a real impact. “I felt that at the level of the retirement home, for some time it was going down the drain, it was not like before since the change of management. We were also told that it was done on site and we realized that it was not”, criticizes this retiree.
In 2019, a Korian spokesperson told 20 minutes that a set of audits had been carried out by independent experts before the takeover of the residence by the group and that it had “not shown any malfunctions”.
Statements that the investigating judges in charge of this case have since sought to verify. At the start of last year, four members of the establishment were taken into custody. Followed in May by the former director of the Omega group, owner of the establishment until February 2019 before being bought by Korian.
Since then, the families have been waiting for a trial to answer all their questions. But also to those that many families are asking today after the revelations of the book The Gravediggerswhich denounces a system instituted, in particular on meals, to improve the profitability of these nursing homes.
“At Lherm, there were not enough staff”
“There is a lead screed. Our dead will not come back, but for the future we have to make things happen and this has been our fight for three years. In these private groups, it is profitability that takes precedence, as we know. We have to review everything at the base, and from the State and large private groups because we are coming to the end of something, ”argues Alexandra Bernard, who is impatiently awaiting an outcome in the case. Because since March 31, 2019, she has been waiting to have her grandmother cremated and truly mourn. His body has in fact been available to justice since that date, with the approval of the family who want to know the whole truth.
So when she hears the director of Korian say in recent days that he sometimes has difficulty recruiting staff, she cannot help but react. “Is there a lack of staff? Well pay them more, they will stay, motivate them, they will stay, give them the means, they will stay in your group,” she replies.
For two weeks, both Orpea and Korian have been trying to clear the wind of criticism aimed at their group, on issues of abuse and the means deployed to operate their many retirement homes. “I’m quite happy that tongues are loosening. As we have seen in this case, we favor the financial over the human. At Lherm, there were not enough staff, not enough rotations on schedules. Three years ago, Agnès Buzin had promised that everything would be done as soon as possible, promises only bind those who keep them, ”tackle Me Nicolas Raynaud de Lage, lawyer for one of the families of victims.
Like the other civil parties in this case, he awaits the indictment of those responsible. “We were promised them at the end of last year, we are waiting for them. Today, the shortcomings are clearly established, there is no doubt about the chain of responsibility. The audits had informed them about the problems of this or that device, and they remained unanswered, ”concludes Me Emmanuel Franck who defends another family.