A stretcher bearer was beaten on Saturday in the emergency room of Challans hospital, in Vendee. Seriously injured, the victim was taken into intensive care, while his attacker, who belonged to a group accompanying a patient, is still being sought.
What happened at Challans hospital?
The attack occurred late Saturday morning in the emergency room of Challans hospital, located about sixty kilometers south of Nantes. “A gentleman came to the emergency room for a burn and individuals found that the treatment [médicale] was not fast enough,” Sylvain Batard, CFDT union representative at the establishment, told AFP. “They got agitated and wanted to break everything at the entrance to the emergency room. In their anger, a colleague who was passing by to take his break in the parking lot was brutally attacked,” continues this witness, adding that “the attack happened within a quarter of an hour of their arrival.”
According to Marc Noizet, the president of Samu-Ergences de France (SUdF) who made the attack public on social networks, the stretcher bearer was “on the ground, unconscious” and the group, which could belong to the community of travelers, fled.
Where is the investigation?
The Sables-d’Olonne public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into “violence against medical personnel”. According to Gwenaëlle Cotto, the public prosecutor, the victim was hit by “a single person who was accompanied by other” people at the hospital. The suspect “has fled and we are doing everything we can to arrest him”, specifies the magistrate.
How is the victim?
The stretcher bearer “suffered serious injuries which meant he was still in intensive care today” indicated Marc Noizet on Sunday morning. The victim was, however, able to be heard “by the gendarmerie,” Francis Saint-Hubert, director of the Vendée hospital group, said later in the day, without saying whether he had left the intensive care unit.
What measures are taken at the hospital?
Following this attack, the emergency department of Challans hospital was closed “for several hours”. “We immediately filed a complaint with the gendarmerie and set up a psychological support unit for the team,” he told France Bleu Loire-Océan the director of the Vendée hospital center. “There was astonishment, fear and gratuitous violence that we do not understand. But caregivers remain professional and committed to serving the patients who come to our establishment,” he added.
In a message of support posted on the X network, Frédéric Valletoux, the Minister for Health, denounces “an odious and cowardly act”.