‘No scar’: surgeon in France accused of just pretending to operate

A doctor in France who stands accused of only pretending to undertake operations has denied the allegations and says he is “sure he will win” his case.

Dr Jacques Zekri worked at the private Cèdres clinic, owned by Ramsay Santé, in Cornebarrieu, Haute-Garonne (Occitanie). The Toulouse prosecutor and the gendarmes de Beauzelle have now opened an investigation after several former patients have accused the doctor of “not really operating” on them.

The first case dates back to April 2015. One patient was treated at the clinic for respiratory issues and severe snoring, and underwent an operation on their nasal passages, palate, and had a turbinectomy (a procedure that helps to relieve a chronic blocked nose, minimise snoring, and correct a deviated septum).

However, the patient then claimed that they saw no improvement in their condition, and sought a second opinion. Their lawyer Stella Bisseuil told La Dépêche that this second doctor claimed that “according to their condition, the patient does not seem to have been operated on. It didn’t do anything.”

‘Serious doubts’

The second doctor report wrote that it was probable that Dr Zekri had not, despite his claims, performed a septoplasty (a procedure to straighten the bone and cartilage between the nostrils), Ms Bisseuil said.

She added that one of the “major victims” in the case - apart from the patient themselves - was the CPAM (Caisse primaire assurance maladie), which had paid for an operation that appeared not to have happened.

The second doctor wrote: “We have serious doubts over the septoplasty, because the septum did not seem modified. We found no scar, and the operating accounts were very evasive and unrealistic. There was no postoperative wound, which is very surprising.

“The observation from the pre-operative radiography and the postoperative scanner showed that there was no deviation.”

Another former patient, Guillaume Durand, who is also being represented by Ms Bisseuil, has made similar claims, and is angry that the court case is not progressing more quickly.

He said: “I made a police report at my local station, and since then, I have not heard anything. I am waiting for justice to be done and want an expert to show that Dr Zekri did not operate on me. I remain with a twisted nose and have great difficulty sleeping.

“This will last until an expert named by the judges is able to examine me,” he said.

‘I am sure I will win’

Dr Zekri, who is in his 70s, denies the claims. He said: “If a doctor is capable of saying that I have not operated on a patient, even though I have all the operation accounts and anatomical pieces to prove that I have, in fact, performed the intervention…they are risking catastrophe.”

He added: “I asked the Conseil de l’Ordre des Médecins. There have been no complaints about me, and I have not heard from the police about this. The only contact I have had with the gendarmerie is when I lodged my complaint for defamation.

“I am sure that I will win my case, but all this will never go away. This is likely to have ruined the end of my career.”

Dr Zekri said that he had received “hundreds and hundreds” of messages from former patients “trying to comfort” me, but said that he had still become ‘a pariah’ in medical circles and beyond.

He said: “Socially, some people have run away, thinking that I am a bad person.” He has now filed a complaint for defamation, including against certain news outlets and the unnamed former patient who made the first complaint.

He has also invited the patients who claim not to have been operated on to come and see him, for proof, and claimed that the lack of scarring was a testament to the quality of his work.

He said: “I am not ashamed to say that I have never just pretended to operate.”

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