At the end of the line, the voice is surprisingly serene. " Everything went very well. Now it's pretty good! "Estimates Lionel Lamhaut, emergency doctor of the Samu at Necker hospital, coordinator of a new medical transfer of patients in intensive care.
It is almost 5 p.m. this Wednesday, and the emergency doctor is on the TGV Rennes-Paris, with fifteen carers, rescuers, doctors, and a caregiver logistician. They have just transferred mid-day part of the 36 Covid-19 patients in intensive care to Brittany. These are the first medical offloads that leave from Ile-de-France, to free beds in a region at the end of its capacity for hospitalization in intensive care.
READ ALSO> Coronavirus: 36 patients evacuated by TGV from Paris to Brittany
The medical teams were on deck at 7 am to pick up the 36 patients in fifteen hospitals (Pontoise, Versailles, Sud Francilien, AP-HP hospitals, etc.) and transport them to the Gare d'Austerlitz for two departures at 11 a.m. and noon. "They are all quite young, around 60 years old, explains Dr. Lamhaut and have passed the acute phase, they are patients who are rather stable".
On board each wagon, four patients, asleep. It is the Samu who chooses the patients to be transferred, with the authorization of the families.
Care provided during the journey
And it is also there that prowess commands respect, throughout the journey, a continuity of care. "There is a very high level of care with teams reinforced in number compared to the usual quotas, specifies Dr. Lahmaut, one can even make blood tests if necessary during the journey. "
It salutes the goldsmith's work carried out by SNCF, for the fittings and logistics, constantly improved thanks to feedback from previous journeys. Hanging beds, an opening train, securing all level crossings to avoid sudden decelerations ...
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Just 1.5 hours later, the TGV arrives in Rennes, where medical teams and local ambulances are waiting. No Ile de France samu was involved in this transfer. "One of the tricks of the maneuver consists in using the equipment of the teams in charge, to save time, in barely 50 minutes, the patients were taken care of and we left," adds Dr. Lamhaut, cell to the hour to resume emergency guard duty in Paris, from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.
Other trains will be chartered
This first TGV announces others, explains the ARS Ile-de-France, which however envisaged a week ago that these load shedding would be the “measure of the last resort”. "The curve of new patients does not seem to be sagging," says ARS Ile-de-France. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, we had to take care of 190 new patients in intensive care: it is becoming difficult to cope with one of the daily influx of such a magnitude, patient transfers to other less overloaded regions will intensify in the days to come. "
This Wednesday, 2227 patients were 17 hours in intensive care in Ile-de-France, including 2200 for the Covid-19. Just two weeks ago, the region had only 1,200 resuscitation beds.
The shedding of a few dozen patients is not the only way to ward off saturation, while the epidemic continues to progress and other patients also need resuscitation. To date, 500 patients are in intensive care for other cases (accidents, stroke, etc.). A reinforcement of several hundred nurses and dozens of doctors should make it possible to open 200 more intensive care beds within 48 hours, with the hope of finally being able to measure, next week, the first effects of confinement.
VIDEO. Coronavirus: SAMU and patients evacuated from Paris applauded in Rennes
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