When Mulhouse tipped into the "hell" of Covid: three years later, caregivers testify

Mélina Facchin 06:18, March 17, 2023

Three years ago to the day, on March 17, 2020, the France went into lockdown for the first time because of Covid-19. In our country, the epicenter of the epidemic was then in Mulhouse in the Haut-Rhin, where a first cluster was detected at the end of February. This city of 110,000 inhabitants was then overwhelmed by an unknown virus. The hospital was quickly saturated and the army had even deployed in its parking lot. Three years later, two caregivers at the heart of the battle tell the story.

"We go to war against something we don't know"

At the beginning of March 2020, Mulhouse fell into the hell of Covid-19. "Three years ago, for my part, I was completely lost," recalls Myriam Boukhechem, a liberal nurse in the Alsatian city. Questions then jostle in his head: "How am I going to do with my patients, my family?" She remembers Emmanuel Macron's televised address on the evening of March 16, 2020. "We are told of the lockdown, the president spoke of war. But we go to war against something we don't see, that we don't know. And without equipment!" The young nurse then posted messages on social networks: "Please, would you have masks, gloves, anything to help us!"

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Frédéric Tryniszewski, president of SOS médecins Mulhouse, also remembers these troubled days very precisely. "The helicopters were flying over my house," he said, who lives near the hospital. "And that sound was the movie Apocalypse Now!" Quickly, the hospital of Mulhouse being saturated, the army deploys tents directly on the parking lot of the establishment to take care of the unmanageable influx of patients. "I could see this almost from my door. It is true that this image is striking", confirms Frédéric Tryniszewski.

"It was really scary to think that we could give this disease to our loved ones"

Faced with this extraordinary situation, like all caregivers, Frédéric Tryniszewski and Myriam Boukhechem must react very quickly. They work hard, work tirelessly, sometimes risking their lives.

So as a precaution, Frédéric Tryniszewski decided for several months to no longer live with his family. "My wife and children still talk to me about it today," he says. "They told me, 'Every day we saw you go to war and we wondered if in the evening you were going to go back.'" At the end of his working day, the doctor undresses in his basement to avoid contaminating his loved ones. It is also there that he sleeps while waiting to return "to the fight" the next day. "At the end of these long months, my son, a tall 1.80m dadais, took me in his arms and said 'Daddy, I need you'," recalls the doctor with emotion.

Myriam Boukhechem confined herself at the same time with her mother and sister. After making the rounds of her patients at home, the liberal nurse returns home "the ball in the stomach", fearing to contaminate her family. "I took several showers because I was scared," she recalls. "It was really scary to think that we could give this disease to our loved ones, that something could happen to them because of us."

"On our days off, we organized Covid tours at home"

Despite all her fears, Myriam Boukhechem continues at all costs to visit her patients, often elderly. And then makes a decision with other liberal nursing colleagues, and SOS Médecins: "We got together, between different Mulhouse practices and we created the 'Covid tour'", she explains. "On our days off, we only looked after Covid positive patients at home. This allowed us to reassure them: many did not want to go to the hospital, this place was scary at that time," she continues.

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Thanks to this "Covid tour", the idea of which was then taken up in other cities of France, Frédéric Tryniszewski estimates that "more than a thousand patients were able to stay at home, during the first wave of the epidemic". Patients who, even today, express their gratitude to Myriam Boukhechem. "When they tell me 'Thank you Myriam, thanks to your visits, I was able to stay at home, it saved my life', it's the most beautiful thing you can hear as a health professional," smiled the nurse.

A "traumatic" beginning of epidemic for Mulhouse

In France, it was in Mulhouse, in the Haut-Rhin, that the Covid 19 epidemic began after the detection of a cluster in an evangelical church. The city is then on the front page of all the newspapers which has left after-effects for many inhabitants. "It has been a personal trauma for almost all Mulhouse residents, because everyone knows a brother, a sister, a parent, a neighbor who has been affected," says Frédéric Tryniszewski.

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"And the second trauma was to be singled out for a long time as those responsible for generating Covid in France," he continues. "I think this trauma will be ingrained in memories for a long time," concludes the doctor. The mayor of Mulhouse did not wish to grant an interview to Europe 1, wishing to move on "to something else".

"We now know how to prepare to manage this type of event"

While the epidemic now seems to be under control, although it has not completely disappeared, it has taken a long time to resume a normal rhythm. "Three years later, I am learning to live as before," smiles Myriam Boukhechem. This travel enthusiast had her passport remade. "I'm finally going to make a big trip in May!" she says.

The two caregivers, who did not know each other before the epidemic but who learned to work together, also want to take some positives from this incredible experience. "Three years later, we do not say at all that we are invincible, we just say that we will be less afraid [in case of a new epidemic], because we now know how to prepare to manage this type of event," said Frédéric Tryniszewski. The Covid 19 crisis "has made it possible to create solidarity, friendships", confirms Myriam Boukhechem. "We learned to work hand in hand. Today, we are a block," concludes the nurse.