At the Bobigny hospital, Eric Soleilhet, led by the rea – Liberation

Eric Soleilhet, like an old bear, taps his fingers and pampers the healing machines he meets. In the corridors of the intensive care unit at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), the logistician takes care of the hands and the eyes because the devices with large filters, the gowns, the respirators, the catheters or the sensors, that’s his business. It’s hard to say “I” but he admits: “I have total control of everything.” In one wing of the service, there is a small corridor, it is like his. Four or five rooms, that of the lung, the kidney, the heart, with shelves that he has arranged carefully. Tens of thousands of euros worth of equipment lie there. The man, young in his sixties, devoted forty years of his life to Avicenna. He faces the Covid epidemic here, alone to manage these reserves where he feels “like at home”. He anticipates and watches. “If I’m afraid of responsibility? Not at all”, he assures. On a board, writing in red marker asks: “Eric, can you order blood test tubes?”

We had met the man for the first time in May, in his other home, an apartment in a neat residence in Drancy. Omicron didn’t exist, delta hadn’t hit France yet. “He is one of Avicenna’s hidden heroes”, we were warned. Eric Soleilhet us …

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