It is with concern that the health team of the psychiatric department of Brive hospital is sending an open letter to its management this Friday, June 16: the caregivers wish to prevent the arrival of a “cannibal” patient, who had notably eaten the brain of his fellow prisoner with a teaspoon in 2004…
In the Henri Laborit psychiatric department at the Brive hospital, concern reigns. The healthcare team has indeed sent an open letter to its management to oppose the transfer of a highly dangerous patient this Friday, June 16.
Well known in Brive for the horrors he committed, this man, considered a “cannibal”, had eviscerated a passerby in 1997 in the city center. Sentenced to 30 years in prison for this intentional homicide, he killed his fellow prisoner in 2004, before eating his brain with a spoon. Following this new murder, the man had been transferred to a unit for difficult patients (UMD) for 20 years.
In 2019, he also physically attacked the healthcare team who had difficulty controlling him because of his imposing mass, recalls France Bleu.
Right of withdrawal
Threatening to use their right of withdrawal, the nursing staff explains that the structure of the establishment does not allow the reception of such a dangerous patient. They recall that they do not constitute an intensive psychiatric care unit and therefore, that they do not have “the same human, material and therapeutic means”.
A commission must meet on June 23 to discuss the reception of the patient. The prefect will then give his decision but the employees are clear, they will use their right of withdrawal if the patient is accepted at the hospital.