Two patients in intensive care with Covid-19 were transferred by plane Friday from Marseille to Strasbourg, in order to relieve congestion in hospitals in the south-east, faced with an influx of patients.
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At around 1:15 p.m., the small plane of the Twin Jet company landed at Strasbourg-Entzheim airport, with two 62-year-old men on board who had developed a serious form of Covid-19, and caregivers to accompany them until 'at the New Civil Hospital (NHC) in Strasbourg.
A delicate transfer
Two ambulances were waiting on the trail.
When he got off the plane, Professor Pierre Michelet, emergency resuscitator at the Marseille hospital of Timone, transmitted the medical information of these patients to the Strasbourg caregivers.
Then began the delicate transfer of patients, intubated and under anesthesia, to the ambulances.
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"
There are two reasons for their transfer: firstly the extreme tension which continues to reign over the intensive care units in Marseille and its surroundings (...) and the fact that they are serious patients but still relatively stable in terms of their respiratory distress, which allows us to transport them in relatively safe conditions
, ”Prof Michelet told AFP.
"
The Grand Est region is providing us with the service that we tried to render them during the first wave, it is really the lifeline between the regions that is taking shape and from a medical and human point of view, it is is extremely valuable,
”he added.
He then boarded the ambulance to accompany patients to Strasbourg hospital, where he will hear from a young patient who had been transferred on Tuesday.
They are 12 in intensive care
At the Strasbourg University Hospitals (HUS), of which the NHC is a part, twelve patients with Covid are currently in intensive care, including eight transferred from the hospitals of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence.
With two pilots at the controls, protected, like the caregivers, by gowns, charlottes and FFP2 masks, the aircraft can carry 19 passengers and has been fitted out for four stretchers and eight seats. At the end of the flight, it was disinfected with a virucide before taking off again for Marseille in the afternoon.