“I was threatened with a baseball bat”: a minister empties his bag at Apolline de Malherbe

A drama “horrible and unspeakable“. Two days after a knife attack at the Reims University Hospital, which resulted in the death of a 38-year-old nurseFrançois Braun expressed his indignation at the microphone of RMC and BFMTV, this Wednesday, May 24: “Beyond the anger that we must feel, there is a certain emotion for what happened. Faced with Apolline de Malherbe, the Minister of Health also revealed that he himself had been confronted “to daily violence” to the hospital.

“We didn’t go so far as to fight in the emergency services, but we sometimes have to control people who can be extremely violent”, said the doctor. The former head of emergencies at CHR Metz-Thionville notably cited an example that sends shivers down the spine: “Once someone threatened me with a baseball bat. And there, we are careful.” The tenant of avenue de Ségur, however, specifies that he was not so afraid of this violence at the time. “We were a team“, he says to the morning of RMC.

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Suspect in custody for ‘attempted murder’

Confronted with “an increased context of violence against caregivers“, the Minister of Health counts attack security systems health facilities. “From next week, I want an audit in all the establishments to check everything and so that we can repair“, promises the former emergency doctor. However, he wishes avoid transforming hospitals into “fortresses“.

Violently assaulted with a knife, Carène Mezino, 38-year-old nurse and mother, succumbed to his injuries. Also affected, his colleague medical secretary has just left the operating room. “She’s fine but let’s be careful“, says François Braun. As for the suspect, a 59-year-old man with psychiatric disordershe would have acted”sans mobile apparent” but made remarks against the white coats. Placed in custody for “assassination attempt“, he had already been at the heart of a case of violence, in June 2022, before obtaining a dismissal”for criminal non-responsibility”.

Photo credits: Capture BFMTV