- The Toulouse University Hospital, which takes care of the most serious cases in the Pink City, has 125 patients diagnosed with Covid-19 hospitalized, including 40 in intensive care.
- Every day, the number of hospitalizations increases by 25% and for Toulouse public health officials "the wave is coming".
- Two of the first patients taken in intensive care a fortnight ago have just been extubated, a positive sign for the caregivers.
Until last week, the Toulouse region was fairly spared from the coronavirus epidemic. Time taken advantage of by the health authorities to free up beds and prepare for the influx of cases who will be hospitalized in the days to come.
“This wave is coming, as expected. We have 125 hospitalizations at the Toulouse University Hospital, forty are in intensive care, against eight last Friday, twenty in intensive care. There are no explosions from the emergency room, but patients' health deteriorates rapidly when they are taken care of, ”said its director general, Marc Penaud, during his now weekly check-up.
In one week, the CHU therefore has five times more people in intensive care, 90% of whom are placed in artificial coma and on a ventilator. The number of Covid-19 positive patients hospitalized is increasing by 25% every day.
Many patients 55-65 years of age
Sometimes with young cases. Like this 22 year old man hospitalized last night with comorbidities. “Another is 30 years old and has a heavy medical history. But the most important average age of our patients is between 55 and 65 years old, with very few comorbidities, with sometimes a little hypertension ”, details for his part doctor Béatrice Riu-Poulenc, head of the service of resuscitation at Purpan hospital.
If four people have died since the start of the epidemic at the CHU, two weeks after taking care of the first patients, this manager gave a glimmer of hope in this gloomy context. "The first wave is waking up, two patients have been able to be extubated, we are starting to have fairly good health figures for 55-65 year olds, but this comes after 15 days of ventilation", she underlines, underlining in passing the boundless commitment of its teams.
And in severe cases of respiratory distress, it is a must. Normally, Rangueil and Purpan hospitals have 87 intensive care beds. “We can add up to 197 intubated and ventilated patients. If we were to go beyond 200 patients, we would be in the same context as that of disaster medicine ”, continues Béatrice Riu-Poulenc.
In this context, two patients could find themselves intubated and ventilated in the same room. For the moment the department is in an ascending phase "which should continue for two weeks", explains Professor Pierre Delobel, head of the infectious diseases department. It remains to be seen whether this curve will stabilize at the end of this period, thus benefiting from the effects of confinement.
40 patients in the Discovery trial
In the meantime, some patients from neighboring hospitals are being repatriated to Toulouse. "We have already intervened in Carcassonne on several occasions to relieve their resuscitation service and that it is not at saturation", indicates Vincent Bounes, the boss of Samu 31.
Our file on the coronavirus
And beyond ventilation, some of these serious cases benefit, on a case-by-case basis, from treatments, be it remesivir , lopinavir or hydroxychloroquine. From Saturday, forty patients diagnosed positive and hospitalized in Toulouse will join the European Discovery trial which will assess the impact of four treatments, including that of hydroxychloroquine.
Health
Coronavirus in Occitania: 551 people hospitalized, including 176 in intensive care and 54 deaths to be deplored
Society
Coronavirus: Olivier Véran does not want to “bet on the health of the French” with chloroquine treatment
- Health
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Hospital
- Toulouse