" You must drink ! "," The mask is also on the nose! ": The two recommendations revolve around the La Filature retirement home in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), where staff and residents face a double penalty, the heat wave combined with the persistent threat of Covid-19.
Tuesday afternoon, when the mercury reaches 35 ° C, the shaded terrace is the refuge of a few residents. Marie * is reading a novel with a glass of water close at hand. "The situation is painful," she begins, before asking herself: "What to do in the face of such a situation? There was no precedent… ”
Wearing a mask and sunglasses, Marianne, 99, sits at the same table but a good distance away to fill her two pages with daily crosswords. A habit inherited from confinement when it was necessary to look after alone.
"Summer 2020 is unique"
The establishment, which hosts nearly 70 residents, has paid a heavy price for the health crisis: 47 suspected cases have been detected among them and 17 have died from the virus. A caregiver was killed by the disease, the first in France. But since May 21, no staff or residents have tested positive. Every morning, everyone complies with the ritual of taking the temperature and family visits have been able to resume. Mulhouse, which was one of the main centers of the epidemic in France, is trying to turn the page.
The enemy now is the exceptional heat. “Heatwaves have always been well managed. It is not something that we apprehend as a caregiver because we are used to it and we know how to react, ”explains Milena Kuppel Noel, a nurse who has already spent three summers in this structure. But "with the Covid, it's more complicated," she emphasizes. For her, the summer of 2020 is "unique", "with what we have been through, the worst we can not do".
Despite the heat, fans and air conditioning are prohibited
On the upper floors, the blinds remain lowered during the day. “It's a bit of a welcome back to the 1960s,” smiles Sophie Lempereur, director of this establishment in the Korian group, number one in Europe for retirement homes. “We close the shutters, create a draft while waiting for the heat to pass. "
With the virus, the ventilators, suspected of spreading the disease, no longer smell of sanctity. "A resident can have one in his room if he is alone with the door closed and he is able to turn it off before another person enters", specifies the director who now favors misters. In the dining room, the air conditioning only works when residents are absent. And in all common areas, the mask is mandatory, says Céline Rabiega, nurse coordinator.
“Wearing a mask is hard,” notes Samantha Peseux, nursing assistant. We "suffocate" with the heat, and the disposable accessory "disturbs the residents, who ask us" And the smile? " She observes.
Not the same feeling of thirst
The establishment was "sectorized". Residents of the same floor are grouped together in the same space in the restaurant. Ditto for the events usually organized in a room on the ground floor and which have been relocated to the small rooms on the upper floors.
"Hydration tours", melon snacks or summer menus, the staff redouble their attention and scrutinize what is drunk and eaten by each resident to prevent dehydration.
"The elderly do not have the same feeling of thirst as us", notes Milena Kuppel Noel, who worked in the floor dedicated to Covid at the height of the crisis and remains marked by excess mortality. More than 30,000 people have succumbed to the disease in France, including nearly a third in nursing homes.
* The first name has been changed at his request
Health
Coronavirus: Reconfinement of an Ehpad in Lorraine after many cases and one death
Society
Coronavirus: 785 new cases in 24 hours, a smaller increase than last week
- Mulhouse
- Health
- Retirement
- Heat wave
- Ehpad
- Coronavirus
- Society