Germany: Alsatian patients, cured of coronavirus, return to France

Intensive care unit in a Berlin hospital (illustration image). REUTERS / Fabrizio Bensch

Text by: RFI Follow

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in some countries in a significant increase in patients requiring intensive care in hospital. Local capacities have not always been sufficient. Patients were, as in France, transported to other less affected regions. Some have been transferred to Germany. The least affected country has available capacities in its hospitals and has received at least 130 French patients. Two of them were able to leave Thuringia yesterday and return to Alsace.

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With our correspondent in Berlin, Pascal Thibaut

This Wednesday, April 1 in the late afternoon, a French army helicopter brings two French patients to the Neustadt clinic in the Harz, a beautiful half-timbered building in a bucolic setting. Two other patients will arrive the next day from Alsace.

The day before, the French ambassador to Germany sent a letter to the Minister-President of Thuringia asking for help from her region. The clinic had already reported that it could receive foreign patients. The next day, the patients therefore arrive from Strasbourg. Chief physician Bernd Kurz: “  We have done our duty. Europe cannot be just fun trips to France, it also means helping each other. We gladly welcomed these patients because we had and we have capacities available. "

"  Thank you  "

Brigitte Tanzeyi does not remember her arrival in Thuringia because she was then in a coma. It is a few days later when she wakes up that she learns, surprised, where she is: “  Thank you all, thank you very much for having given me life again. I was almost dead. They gave me life again. It was my rebirth. I don't wish anyone to catch the coronavirus. It's very hard.  "

After the two French patients repatriated yesterday, two more still in Neustadt could be it next week. A few days ago, Emmanuel Macron thanked Thuringia and its Minister-President in a letter for the reception of the four patients.

Read also: Coronavirus: French patients seen in German hospitals

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  • Coronavirus
  • Germany
  • France
  • Health and Medicine

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