His name is Amirouche Hammar, and tests performed retrospectively revealed that he had been ill with Covid-19 almost a month before the first three patients officially declared positive in France.
In front of the camera of BFMTV, which broadcasts his testimony on Tuesday, he tells how he went to the emergency room of Jean-Verdier hospital (Bondy, Seine-Saint-Denis) at the end of last year for what he thought he was a big flu. "I had severe chest pain, gasping for air," he explains.
đź—¨ "I was told: what you have is very serious"
The patient infected in December with coronavirus testifies on BFMTV pic.twitter.com/vlvnFhKqBv
"I was told it may be a lung infection, nothing sure, but what you have is very serious !" ", He reports.
"I was told you are positive at Covid-19"
He was finally able to return home after several days of hospitalization and it was only very recently that he learned that he had been infected with the coronavirus. Retrospective analysis of PCR serological tests carried out on 24 pneumonia patients in December and January, in the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) and the Jean-Verdier hospital, in Bondy (Seine-Saint -Denis) led to this conclusion.
"I was told 100% that you are positive at Covid-19, " says Amirouche Hammar.
"I was surprised," continues the man who does not know how he could have been infected. One of the hypotheses is that his wife, an employee in a large area, was attacked at work. "We serve customers who come directly from the airport," she said in the BFMTV report.
Today Amirouche Hammar is pleased to have no sequelae but is worried in retrospect to have been able to contaminate other people.
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It was Professor Yves Cohen, head of the intensive care unit at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), and the Jean-Verdier hospital, in Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis), who revealed this case a few days ago.