The Covid cell in La Timone opens its doors at 20 Minutes -

20 Minutes

From our special correspondent to the AP-HM,

"At first you didn't want to believe it, in the second wave, remember, Sophie?"

Between two doors on the second floor of the Timone, between two patients, the piercing blue eyes that overlook the mask of the anesthetist-resuscitator nod.

“I really do not know what it will give, abounds Sophie Cataldi, in her fifties, including twenty years spent within these four walls.

What will our life be like in three months?

I do not know the answer.

"

Since mid-August, the second wave of coronavirus has been a palpable reality for the caregivers of this AP-HM intensive care unit, which takes care of patients with Covid-19.

“We have arrivals almost every day,” testifies Alexandra, a nurse.

And coronavirus patients, we will keep them all the time, I think… ”On August 14, the AP-HM had 3 patients with Covid-19 in intensive care.

On September 28, it numbered 50.

"Stop telling me that the coronavirus is an old man's disease"

Lionel Velly, an anesthesiologist, resuscitator, walks the strangely calm corridors.

“Here, we never run, unless there is a cardiac arrest,” he explains.

Before his eyes, a parade of rooms, or boxes as we say here, almost all occupied with bodies in struggle, haggard looks when they are not closed.

"Lionel, things are not going well for MB," blows an intern.

A little further, behind the glass, on the white bed, a man almost motionless, his face swollen, covered with pipes which allow his blood to oxygenate.

“49 years old, loose Lionel Velly.

The medical history box is blank.

And this is one of the most disturbing cases of Covid that we have here at the moment.

While people stop telling me that the coronavirus is a disease of old people that only affects bedridden people or nursing homes.

"

"I've been here for twenty days"

Here, the oldest patient is 78 years old.

But the majority of patients hospitalized for coronavirus are between around 50 and 60 years old.

And a large part of them participated, a few days before their admission to intensive care, in a wedding or a family reunion, according to Dr. Velly.

The doctor opens the door of another box to greet a man with drawn treaties, surrounded by machines.

Since contracting the coronavirus, this patient has lost 70% of his lung capacity.

"I've been here for twenty days, it's starting to do, eh, doctor?

», He tries to joke.

Twenty days which, for some, can turn into months.

A situation which gradually leads to the saturation of an already fragile hospital system.

That day, on the second floor, there are already only two beds available.

"If we continue at this rate, we will not succeed"

So, caregivers are trying to adapt, find new places, create new resuscitation beds for Covid patients….

And the others.

A few meters away, a patient finally comes out of intensive care.

The box will only remain empty for a few minutes.

In the corridor opposite, nurses are transforming a classic box into a resuscitation box, in particular by equipping it with the respirators that the AP-HM acquired during confinement.

A sort of D system to deal with the emergency….

But that has its limits.

“For Covid patients, theoretically, one nurse would need for two patients,” explains Lionel Velly.

But we can't do it!

We could double our capacity in a snap.

We have the material.

But we don't have the staff.

If we can open two beds this evening, it is because today we had new recruits!

But if it continues at this rate, without the staff, we won't be able to do it.

"

Given the urgency, the AP-HM launched a vast recruitment campaign a few weeks ago.

But a hundred positions are still to be filled. In the meantime, it is necessary to multiply the guards, and to face, once more.

“During the first wave, I left at 7 am and returned at 9 pm, remembers Lionel Velly The applause, I only heard it on television”.

In the small rest room, the caregivers kept the drawings, the banners and the little words of thanks given by anonymous people during the first wave.

"But me, I do not like to be pitied, plague Sophie Cataldi.

Unlike others, outside here, we have a job.

There are much worse than us.

"

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