A French court sentenced a doctor on Monday to three years in jail for posing as a plastic surgeon and endangering patients by operating on them illegally in a derelict Marseille clinic.
Michel Maure went on trial in June accused of luring hundreds of patients to the dirty premises under false pretences between 2002 and 2004 and carrying out painful, unhygienic operations on them.
Maure was also sentenced to pay a 75,000 euro ($107,600) fine and to compensate his victims, about 100 of whom had complained of disfigurement and permanent damage to their health.
He went on the run while the court prepared its ruling and was arrested in Spain on August 19 after being spotted on a luxury yacht. Spain is expected to hand him over to France within days.
Maure was a qualified doctor but not a trained plastic surgeon. He was struck off the list of recognized French doctors in 2007 over his activities at the Marseille clinic.
French media have reported that the disgraced doctor had proclaimed himself “one of the greatest surgeons in the world.”
How well do you research your doctors?
“He went on the run while the court prepared its ruling and was arrested in Spain on August 19 after being spotted on a luxury yacht.”
Only three years, on top of having flown the coop?! I guess France will “lock him up” in one of those easy to tear thru, large paper bag prison cells, they reserve for bad doctors and lawyers. Come on! If he were some nobody convenience store thief, he’d probably get 20 years. But disfiguring a 100 people, only gets him three, because he’s educated.
If you want to know what French prisons are like, read the book Catch Me if you Can.
“How well do you research your doctors?”
I recall some legitimate news organization cautioning the viewers to check out the credentials of the doctor by asking him direct questions like what is his infection rate.
Choose a quality hospital that the doc is an active member of and hope for the best.
Doctors will lie about their infection rate, if they even keep track. Instead, ask nurses about who are the best doctors. Don’t ask them to tell you which are the worst — they won’t. Do not take just one person’s opinion but ask several. If you must ask patients, realize that they may not be the best people qualified to answer. They don’t know if their M.D. chose the best course of action as they do not know all courses of action. Many people choose their doctor on personality and think that is an indication of competence (yes, really!). Do your research. That is what the internet is for.
#1, Glenn,
Unlike the US, most civilized countries take a much different view of crime and punishment.
Americans are more interested in vengeance, hence your 20 yr sentence, than rehabilitation and correction.
France, as with most of Europe, is more interested in trying to reform the criminal and make him once again a useful member of society. Maybe not as a physician, but not an outcast either.
#4
Totally agree.. ask an O.R. nurse, or better yet ask an anesthesiologist, who works with and watches the surgeons all day, who they’d choose to do surgery on their own mother. The anesthesiologists are brutally honest, as they regard it as their duty to protect the patient during surgery and don’t like working with hacks. But DON’T ask them in the pre-op area, it’s too late then. There is little point in asking the surgeon. A good surgeon will be honest – a hack won’t. But if you don’t know which is which, it won’t help.
Three years per patient would seem more fair to me.
If he died before his time was up just store him down stairs until he gets probation.