Paris (AFP)

Practitioner in a hospital in the Paris region, on the front line to treat the wave of patients affected by the coronavirus, an anesthesiologist-resuscitator delivers daily for AFP, on condition of anonymity, the summary of his day in full crisis sanitary.

- Monday April 27 -

That's it. A Covid unit has finally "closed its doors. Six resuscitation beds have been closed. However, not wiped off the map. A small victory because we say that the return to normal is coming to an end.

A lot of worries also because everyone has in mind the end of May with a possible rebound in the number of cases.

We are more serene on the organizational side because we now know our capacities to expand. On the other hand, we don't at all want to say that we risk entering a phase that will last for months and months ...

We are impatiently awaiting the terms of the deconfinement. There are a lot of questions in the hospital, as for everyone: tests, serologies, masks, the possibility of moving to France, schools, restaurants, terraces.

I think we're all afraid of having to spend the whole summer in the hospital. It is a risk far from negligible ... People are exhausted. But I don't complain. We are also lucky.

Sunday, I was chatting with a friend who works in the cinema. He and his wife are independent. No more money since March. No visibility on the future.

We are really fortunate to continue to work, to not have financial worries added to this and to make ourselves useful.

A little ray of hope today. I was able to see several patients "extubated", that is to say patients in whom we were able to withdraw respiratory assistance. It feels good. It's rare enough to remember it.

The son of one of these patients told me several times over the phone that he thanked the whole team for everything we had done.

I told myself that we hadn't done much. That his dad was especially lucky to be in the "right category" of Covid patients, those who are fortunate, we do not know why, to recover from this damn disease. He offered to bring food to thank the team.

We felt, as often, that he felt indebted for something. This is however not the case. In normal times, in intensive care, this recognition is much rarer. We feel that the seriousness of the situation, the fear of being infected and the understanding of what resuscitation services have made many people aware of certain things.

I replied that only a small letter of support would be enough and would do a lot of good for the team. No doubt he will ...

© 2020 AFP