- Twenty seriously ill patients must be transferred to hospitals in Pays-de-la-Loire, Angers, Le Mans, Nantes, La Roche-sur-Yon.
- Patients were to be installed in five cars, four per lower room, the upper ones being used for the movement of materials and nursing staff.
- In hospitals in the Grand-Est, where 506 people have already died due to the coronavirus
It is an unprecedented operation in Europe. The boarding of Alsatian patients contaminated by the coronavirus on board the medicalized TGV which must evacuate them to hospitals in Pays-de-la-Loire began Thursday around 8:30 am.
The twenty seriously ill patients must be transferred to hospitals in Pays-de-la-Loire, Angers, Le Mans, Nantes, La Roche-sur-Yon.
Four patients per car
The first ambulances arrived shortly after 6 am on platform 1 of the Strasbourg station where the TGV Duplex medicalized stationed since Wednesday evening. An ambulance ballet then started with the overworked caregivers busy around the vehicles. Then, around 8:30 am, the first patients were transported on stretchers and boarded the TGV.
The patients were to be installed in five cars, four per lower room, the upper ones being devoted to the circulation of materials and nursing staff, said the Directorate General of Health (DGS). In each car, a medical team made up of an anesthesiologist-resuscitator, an intern, a nurse anesthetist and three nurses will be present, according to the DGS.
Fifty caregivers
These caregivers are from CHU Nantes and Angers as well as AP-HP Paris, while the Samu de Paris coordinates the maneuver. About 50 caregivers and logisticians participate in the trip. A classic train was coupled to the medical train, in order to face possible hazards, such as a collision with game.
Triggered to relieve one of the regions of France most affected by the pandemic and its saturated hospitals, this operation could be brought to repeat itself. In order to relieve hospitals in the Grand-Est, where 506 people have already died due to the coronavirus, several patient evacuation operations have previously been carried out by an Air Force Airbus to other hospitals in France, a first as well. Others were organized by helicopter to neighboring countries, notably Germany.
Another first, again in Mulhouse: a military field hospital, visited Wednesday by Emmanuel Macron, was deployed this week at the foot of the civilian hospital in order to take care of around thirty of its patients.
Strasbourg
Coronavirus in Alsace: Patients will be evacuated from Strasbourg and Mulhouse by medical TGV
Strasbourg
Coronavirus in Alsace: The influx of patients puts hospitals under pressure
- Society
- Coronavirus
- Strasbourg
- Health
- TGV
- Angers
- Nantes