“A lot of people give up on care: in New York hospitals, French doctors testify

With nearly 430,000 confirmed cases, the United States is the country most affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. Two days in a row, the country has just recorded the worst daily toll in the world since the start of the crisis, with nearly 2,000 deaths twice in 24 hours. More than anywhere else, hospitals in New York, the main focus of the epidemic on American soil, are reaching saturation point.

At Maimonides Hospital in the Brooklyn neighborhood, patients keep coming in every day. Due to lack of space, they are now almost glued to each other. In the cardiology department where Dr Sarah Rosanel works, an alarm sounds every time a patient’s heart stops. Already 170 deaths are to be deplored in this hospital. “We hear that all day long, it’s depressing,” says the Frenchwoman.

Also depressing, the lack of equipment: the equipment that Sarah Rosanel carries comes from donations. “The medical authorities tell us that if you don’t have enough equipment you can use a bandana, which is appalling,” she says. His hospital is still facing, but in other establishments, the situation is terrible, as doctor friends told him: “They no longer have ventilators, they no longer have oxygen, they no longer have of drugs to keep patients asleep so it’s very, very hard. “

In the city that never sleeps, the cardiologist also has almost no right to rest: she sometimes works 24 hours in a row, despite fatigue. Its service now only welcomes Covid-19 patients, all in serious condition.

At Brooklyn University Hospital, another facility, patient beds are being set up in the cafeteria, with no other place to put them. “A lot of people are elderly people who have not left their home for two to three weeks and who have only seen their grandchildren, who have come to spend a little time with them”, explains Julien Cavanagh, neurologist and head of interns.

Here 10% of admitted patients are not saved. “A lot of people give up healthcare, even in New York, and wait to be very sick,” said the Frenchman. It is sometimes too late for them. The figures are crazy in New York, where there are already nearly 4,000 dead.