- Italian patients forced to say goodbye to their loved one via tablets? This is confirmed by an Ivorian Twitter account, with an illustrative photo.
- If the photo does not correspond to a patient at the end of life, measures of this kind have been taken in Italy.
- The ban on hospital visits and the ban on funerals raises the question of mourning and the psychological consequences.
“In Italy, the terminally ill say goodbye to their families by video call. This tweet, posted this Sunday by the account of the Ivorian people site First Magazine , warns of the isolation of patients suffering from the coronavirus. It is accompanied by a photo of a nursing staff holding a tablet in front of a patient on his hospital bed. On the screen, there are several faces and another bedridden patient.
This tweet did not fail to provoke reactions from Internet users, between sadness, anger and disbelief: "Do you understand that the situation is serious? If not, it might be time to open your eyes now "," My God it's horrible, poor people "," Keep going out, go bunch of selfish people "or" What is your source? "
The tweet was deleted in the morning of Tuesday, March 24, found 20 Minutes .
FAKE OFF
Contacted by 20 Minutes , First Magazine did not respond to the source of this photo. Professor Jean-Paul Mira, head of the intensive care and intensive care unit at Cochin hospital in Paris, deciphers it: “In my opinion, this is not the end of life. It is not a resuscitation environment where the patient would be intubated. There he just has oxygen. And he even has a keen eye, he is not in great distress. "
However, if, in this specific case, the photo seems to be a pretext photo, video calls between patients at the end of life and their relatives were indeed organized by Italian carers, as described in an article in the daily Il Giornale , published Wednesday March 18: “A grandmother wanted to see her granddaughter. I took out the phone and called it on video. They said goodbye. I hope that they will give us mini iPads, three or four would be enough, so as not to let them die alone, ”said a doctor at the San Carlo Borromeo hospital in Milan. In this article, we also learn that the Italian mobile operator Tim has promised to donate "tablets for hospitals at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus". Lorenzo Musotto, city councilor for the 6th arrondissement in Milan, said in a Facebook post that he "bought tablets to give to health facilities so that patients can greet their loved ones one last time".
Is this solution envisaged in France? “Yesterday, during a crisis meeting in Paris, the subject was indeed raised, continues Professor Jean-Paul Mira. But there should be at least 1,100 in Paris. Is the expenditure really useful? "
"Civil disobedience"
He chose another, more radical method: overriding the instructions. "I can no longer bear this directive [the ban made by the Regional Health Agency to visit the sick] which has no meaning [...]. Inhuman directive, because when these patients die, families can then see a little their loved one in a body bag before the closure of it and point, "he testified on his Facebook account. "I will officially ask this day to be able to accept one visitor per day near these patients. I hope this request will be accepted. If it is not, I will do civil disobedience ”.
As he details on a YouTube video, these visits would remain very framed: “We have developed a protocol and our goal has been the safety of everyone. One visitor per patient and the same visitor during the entire stay. Before each visit, we make sure that the visitor has no Covid-19 symptoms. "
"This epidemic kills twice"
In France, calls have been made to obtain tablets, but not necessarily for end-of-life patients, as in Argenteuil (Val d'Oise), at the Victor-Dupouy hospital center. So that patients in long-term care units can keep in touch with their loved ones by videoconference, the hospital hopes to acquire a dozen devices, as explained on its Facebook page: "Let us buy tablets 4G to maintain the link between our geriatric and palliative care patients and their families! "
Be that as it may, the problem of farewell to the dying will no doubt have serious psychological consequences on bereaved families: "We are talking about economic spinoffs, but the psychological reality to come and the post-traumatic syndromes will be enormous for families who could not say goodbye to the deceased, or attend the funeral, ”said Professor Jean-Paul Mira. "This epidemic kills twice," testifies an employee of the undertakers in Lombardy in the columns of Les Echos . By isolating the sick before their death and by preventing their families from accompanying them on their last trip. They are devastated and find it difficult to accept it. "
Society
Coronavirus: Corpses that “litter the streets” in Italy? Watch out for this viral video
World
Coronavirus in Italy: Despite a drop in new cases, health authorities remain very cautious
- Health
- Fake Off
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Society
- Tablet