Two augmented Covid patients from Marseille in intensive care at Mercy hospital, near Metz
Two patients with Covid-19 were received this Thursday from Marseille hospitals, to Mercy hospital, near Metz (Moselle), in intensive care. It is two fairly young patients, in their fifties, with co-morbidities, and not vaccinated. They took off in the morning from Marignane airport, and landed at Lorraine Airport in Louvigny, before being taken in two Smur ambulances (Mobile emergency and resuscitation service), to the resuscitation service of Louvigny. messin hospital.
Solidarity between hospitals
An operation of solidarity with hospitals in high tension in this 5th wave of the Covid epidemic, as we had received when the Grand Est was among the regions most in previous waves. “It’s day-to-day management, with little visibility“, explains Lamia Himer, the Moselle delegate of the Grand Est regional health agency.”Last week, we were a little more in tension, a little less this week. This makes it possible to have availability in support of hospitals in other regions.“.
White plan in force
However, the CHR Metz-Thionville teams are in great demand: only four sheave beds are now available. Half of critical care beds are occupied by Covid patients. And the white plan was activated in Moselle a few weeks ago. But solidarity must prevail, for Marie-Odile Saillard, the general manager of the hospital center: “The white plan is a question of local and national management, and we must be able to articulate our crisis plans among ourselves, otherwise we would no longer be in republican territory.“.
Such a situation, when the vaccination campaign started almost a year ago, is regrettable for Dr Damien Barraud, resuscitator at Mercy: “We have a tool, the vaccine, which has not been used enough, and it is annoying. The teams are tired, just in time, with little room for maneuver.“
This wave is the wave of the unvaccinated and disinformation
Nevertheless, the vast majority of Covid patients undergoing intensive care at Mercy say regret not having been vaccinated : “They tell us, either at the start of their hospitalization or when they leave, that they regret and that they have been caught. We have very, very little, but we had some, real anti-vax, pure and hard. But those, we can’t change their minds», Testifies Damien Barraud.
Caregivers in Metz expect further complicated periods in the coming weeks, without knowing whether the Omicron variant will have repercussions through massive hospital admissions. As a guide, other patient transfers could be organized in the coming days, at regional or national level.