A French surgeon tried to sell the radio from the arm of a woman injured during the bloody jihadist attack on the Bataclan in Paris in 2015, angering Paris hospitals who will take legal action, and the families of victims.
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According to the Mediapart site, which revealed the information on Saturday, this renowned orthopedic surgeon, Emmanuel Masmejean, auctioned on OpenSea, a site specializing in the sale of NFT digital objects, the radio of a Bataclan survivor who he had operated, on which we see a forearm pierced by a Kalashnikov bullet.
According to the investigative site, the radio was on sale for the sum of 2,776 dollars.
The surgeon acknowledged the facts to Mediapart, explaining that he had done it “for an educational purpose” and has since withdrawn the offer, but not the photo still visible on OpenSea on Sunday. Assuring “having asked the question from an ethical point of view”, he recognizes “the error” of not having asked the authorization of the operated patient.
Below the photo, the doctor specifies that “this young patient, who lost her boyfriend in this attack, had an open fracture of the left forearm with a remaining Kalashnikov bullet in the soft tissues”.
On November 13, 2015, France was hit by the worst terrorist attacks in its history, claimed by the Islamic State group. The attacks, against the Bataclan concert hall, several bars and restaurants in Paris and near the Stade de France, left 130 dead and more than 350 injured.
The boss of the AP-HP (hospitals of Paris) Martin Hirsch denounced, in a message sent to the staff, “a scandalous act” committed by “a surgeon, university professor – hospital practitioner of the European Hospital Georges Pompidou” , and indicated on Twitter that justice was going to be seized.
While the trial of the November 2015 attacks is currently taking place in Paris, Martin Hirsch believes that this “odious behavior” is “unethical, calling into question medical secrecy, going against the values of the AP- HP and public service”.
The association of victims of November 13 “Life for Paris” said in a press release “to stand alongside the victim of the attack, who is today also a victim of the stupidity and greed of a + doctor + who has visibly forgotten the code of ethics and seems devoid of both common sense and the most elementary empathy”.
Another association of victims, Fraternité et Vérité, denounced “a heinous act”, but “isolated and not representative of the work of the health professionals of the AP-HP in whom we have full confidence”.