Charlotte * sighs when describing her exhausting daily life in the emergency room of the Emile Muller hospital in Mulhouse: "It is a horrible situation". The establishment is on the front line in the face of a massive influx of patients suffering from Coronavirus. The Haut-Rhin alone has 30 dead and nearly 688 sick. Contaminations multiply there since an evangelical gathering attended by more than 2,000 people from February 17 to 24.
Charlotte was surprised to see the convergence of many past patients who attended this religious gathering. The young woman, usually assigned to the reception of traditional emergencies, now also cares for patients with Coronavirus, treated separately by hospital staff.
These emergencies concentrate patients with great respiratory difficulty. "Some are frightened," says the Alsatian, "They are looking for answers when we ourselves don't have any." "Some are in distress. You only see patients on oxygen." A very different atmosphere: "We are a little plagued because we are in the Covid sector. We are masked, gloved, we have coats, charlottes. We do not recognize us. And for these patients it can only add an additional fear. "
The caregiver treats the cases of confined patients, forced to fight alone against the virus, for lack of relatives authorized to enter the Covid sector. "We are afraid ourselves, we ask ourselves questions, we have fears, we wonder when we will see the end of it."
She describes an already fragile hospital overwhelmed by the epidemic of Coronavirus on the brink of implosion. "Our premises were not already suitable for the base, the staff in insufficient numbers, the equipment, I don't even speak of it, and to this is added this crisis".
Faced with the emergency, the nurse conceded that the youngest, with a lighter medical history could have been given priority in the face of patients with more fragile health: "It is hard to say and to hear but it is certain that "We will privilege the youngest. After the backgrounds are also seen. We take care of all these people, we cannot leave them aside."
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
On March 16, Marc Noizet, director of emergency at the hospital alarmed his colleagues "The opening of Covid beds is no longer enough, the establishment is almost at the end of the means it can deploy".
Supported by the army, the Emile Muller hospital was able to transfer 4 patients in intensive care to the south of France on March 18, as did two other patients hospitalized in Colmar. "We feel helped, supported and it feels good, not to feel alone," says Charlotte.
* The first name has been changed