Early in the morning, Monday, women and men in the medical regiment were busy unpacking containers, transporting equipment and installing various medical beds and monitors in the interlacing of tents that form the Military Element of resuscitation (EMR), installed in the parking lot of the Emile-Muller hospital in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin).
A week after Emmanuel Macron's spectacular announcement of the deployment of a field hospital, as there are - "but much lighter," the soldiers insist - in theaters of operation in the Sahel or the Levant, the emergency unit, 20 tents covering 1,000 square meters, is still not ready to receive its patients. Its thirty resuscitation and ventilation beds and their high-tech environment are still being tested. However, the civilian hospital, a few tens of meters away, which has 40 specialized beds, lives under intense pressure 24 hours a day, in this Alsatian epicenter of the Covid-19 epidemic.
VIDEO. Coronavirus in Mulhouse: at the heart of the military hospital soon to be operational
Right next to the dark green canvas camp, the "DZ", the helicopter takeoff area, continues the noria of stretcher bearers and carers, dressed in their protective white coveralls, masks on their faces and charlottes on their heads, pushing and surrounding the patients on their beds. Each takeoff takes a patient to another hospital. In France, if it is a white helicopter from the Samu, to Strasbourg, Reims, or Tours, "where there are resuscitation beds available", explains a head nurse. Or, as with this silver and red helicopter, to one of the neighboring countries which have offered to welcome patients from this stricken Great East region: Luxembourg, Switzerland, Baden-Württemberg Land in Germany…
"Yes, the pressure and the expectation of the people are enormous, but it is more than ever necessary to keep your cool, not to rush things and ensure above all a 100% safety for the sick", indicates in a calm voice, a look at the soldiers at work, Nadia (the first name has been changed). This nurse from the Emile-Muller hospital, who had gone out to smoke, informed a couple who had come for a medical examination. "Everything is postponed, consultations, operations, except real emergencies (Editor's note: she insists on" real ") , such as heart accidents, appendicitis ...". The gentleman is admitted, he must pass an urgent scanner.
"I do my job, people do theirs while staying confined"
Before returning to her treatment room, Nadia confides her state of mind. "Afraid? No, I do my job, I do my actions forever, that's why I was trained, and it's my duty. But I ask people to do theirs too, to stay confined. The surroundings of the building are almost deserted. Rare small groups discuss, at a distance from each other, caregivers cross hurriedly. Only the whistling of helicopter rotors breaks the serious, ambient silence.
In one of the khaki tents, Corinne, the "hygienist major", surrounded by military doctors and one of their civilian colleagues, repeats the operations to come. This “second grade general care nurse” (major equivalent) is one of two EMR hygienists responsible, selected because they participated in the deployment of a field hospital in Guinea in 2015, against the epidemic Ebola. Its mission is to avoid internal contamination. She gives her orders: "Pre-position the bed here, in this airlock, so that you can put side by side whoever comes from the hospital." »Objective: not to waste time in transfers.
Political Newsletter
Every day, political 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
In fact, the patients treated here will come from neighboring emergencies, once their condition has been stabilized. "But improving their condition will still require a long period of ventilation", describes the doctor-commander Antoine (for security reasons, the soldiers in operation, except the generals, only communicate their ranks and first names), chief of operations.
The “major hygienist” will also supervise the implementation of the NRBC protection suits (against nuclear, radiological, biological or chemical risks) used here, and will ensure the daily health control of the 70 caregivers in the camp - 100 in total with the next generation. No question that one of them who is a carrier of the coronavirus contaminates the others. Other tests carried out at the end of this race, fire simulations, power failure, failure of concentrators manufacturing oxygen for cardiopulmonary ventilators, etc.
Design and build everything in five days
"We hope to welcome the first patients, at least in a first 10-bed module, tomorrow Tuesday, or Wednesday," says an officer, aware of the impatience ... and the incomprehension of some who wonder why it is so long. "It is a fabric resuscitation unit, a first, never carried out in opex (Editor's note: external military operation) or on the national territory, it was necessary to design and assemble this field hospital in five days, starting from a blank sheet ”, replies Major Antoine, tired of the comparison with“ the Chinese hospital built in ten days ”.
Only one man will decide to give the "green light": the doctor-general Jacques Escarment. This 3-star general, recently retired from the army, former boss of the Lyon military hospital, has returned to service to direct the EMR and ensure close coordination with the civilian hospital. "He will only press the button once everything is checked and rechecked (Editor's note: checked and rechecked) ", summarizes a lieutenant. The eagerly awaited military knows it cannot afford to make a faux pas.
