Overview
- The Paris criminal court on February 9, 2026 acquitted the public hospital group AP‑HP of involuntary manslaughter over the 2018 death of Micheline Myrtil at Lariboisière’s emergency department.
- While clearing the institution of criminal charges, the court formally found a fault for negligence, citing insufficient resources, inadequate facilities and chronic understaffing known to management.
- The judgment notes warnings had reached top leadership, including a direct alert to then director general Martin Hirsch in October 2018, without measures matching the urgency before the incident.
- Myrtil, 55, was left on a stretcher in a hard‑to‑monitor waiting area, was misidentified, recorded as a “fugue,” and later found dead; an autopsy attributed the death to invasive meningococcal infection.
- Judges emphasized the absence of a certain causal link, pointing to expert findings on inherent mortality even with prompt care and characterizing the shortfall as a loss of chance; the prosecutor had sought acquittal and civil parties’ claims were dismissed.