Paris (AFP)

Practitioner in a hospital in the Paris region, on the front line to treat the surge of coronavirus patients, an anesthesiologist-resuscitator delivers daily for AFP, on condition of anonymity, the summary of his day in the middle of a health crisis.

- Tuesday March 31 -

"Yesterday I was scheduled to rest but finally it turned into a day at the hospital. The rest will be for later. Today I am on call again until tomorrow.

Some patients had to be put on respiratory assistance for a few hours in operating room, for lack of space in intensive care. Several hospitals in Ile-de-France are there, waiting to succeed in opening additional resuscitation beds.

Things are getting better. About fifty calls from Samu today.

We don't even take the time to describe ourselves or listen to the details of the patient's story. It boils down to some crucial information: that is, confirmed covid? Intubated? Age possibly? And then we try to find a place in the service. Loop like this all day ...

We don't even have time to have details on the history of the past few days, the precise history or the family circle.

The hardest part is undeniably the patients for whom we must decide to + refuse + admission to intensive care. It is our daily life in intensive care to weigh the benefit to be expected from a stay in intensive care with regard to the consequences that may result.

The difference currently with covid patients is, on the one hand, the quantity of patients in whom these discussions take place daily and, on the other hand, that we lack the knowledge on this disease to be able to judge which patients are the most susceptible. to benefit from resuscitation.

We are obliged to leave patients in the conventional hospital wards who would normally have been monitored from the outset in intensive care or in a continuing care unit. The resource is lacking.

We have to push the limits everywhere, where we can by limiting the risks for patients as much as possible and offering them the best possible care. We are told of a very difficult weekend.

Honestly, I don't know how we can further increase our capacities for resuscitation beds.

Beyond that, the teams are really starting to tire. We want more than ever to get out of this nightmare.

The therapeutic limitations, the absence of links with families, the same pathology everywhere, the constant pressure more than ever, the endless controversies over the so-called specific treatments. Some people lose their sense of reality. We can understand it. But it has to end as quickly as possible.

In the middle of all this, we receive a lot (too much?) Of food or other in the hospital. It's touching, especially when there are drawings or little children's words accompanying the package. It is sometimes a little embarrassing too. We only do our job. In difficult conditions, certainly, but that is not new today ... "

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