The newspaper was entitled to a visit to the Verdun Hospital last week, where exhausted employees catch their breath, while fearing that a third wave will come back to overwhelm them.
Driving at full speed during the holidays with 37 patients, the wing of the 5e south floor is now surprisingly calm. A handful of patients infected with COVID-19 are still hospitalized there.
“We’re pretty sure there will be a third wave with the release, the variants, the partial deconfinement and the fatigue of people in general. We have a little respite […] but we are preparing ”, blows the Dr Jean-François Thibert.
The director of professional care has not had a real day off since the beginning of December. He and his colleagues are more tired, but also more irritable.
Because everything is longer and more complicated with COVID-19. “If a patient has to take an exam, before it was simple, you would take the patient and bring him to the examination room, period,” says nurse Stéphane Lo. But there, we must communicate with security, it takes a long process for them to free the entire corridor. Time is wasted, it’s long, long, long, and during that time, the patient may be less well, he must be monitored. “
Hot and uncomfortable
When you are wearing an N95 mask, a visor and a waterproof jacket, the place quickly becomes overwhelmingly hot, as the representative of the Journal, wearing the same paraphernalia and the visor fogged up in a few minutes.
“You can just sit there for a little five minutes and sweat,” says Stéphane Lo, who consoles himself by having lost a few pounds in recent months.
“We do not have the right to drink, not the right to go to the toilet, unless we undress completely”, continues the 29-year-old man.
The equipment is only removed to go to eat, as the process alone takes eight minutes.
More beds
The capacity had to increase at the same rate as the patients arrived, explains Christian Lainé, clinical-administrative coordinator.
“COVID-19 hospitalization requests were increasing by two, three, every 24 hours. We said to ourselves: but my god, what are we going to do? »He relates, recalling the first months of the pandemic. In one day, low walls were built to separate the corridors and open up new rooms.
Here, the patients are not intubated, on a ventilator. Lying down or sitting on a chair, all are nevertheless weak, making the whole floor strangely calm. As a result, employees get to know them and their loved ones.
“When we treat a patient and at a given moment, the patient dies, we have the impression that we have not done our job, that we are powerless …”, breaths nurse Joelle Djomo.
A harsh reality, of which The newspaper was a witness. On leaving the unit, back on the ground floor, two black bags containing the bodies of deceased patients also left the hospital.
EIGHT MINUTES TO REMOVE EVERYTHING
Staff leaving a red zone in the hospital must follow these 19 steps, a process that takes approximately 8 minutes.
- Wash your hands for 1 minute
- Detach the dust jacket
- Wash one’s hands
- Remove the dust jacket by rolling it
- Wash one’s hands
- Remove the visor
- Clean the inside of the visor with a disinfectant wipe
- Clean the outside of the visor with a different wipe
- Put the visor in a plastic bag
- Wash one’s hands
- Remove the hat, then the slippers
- Wash one’s hands
- Transfer your cell phone, already in a plastic bag, to a new bag
- Wash one’s hands
- Remove the N95 mask and put it in a brown bag
- Wash one’s hands
- Rub your shoes on the mat 10 seconds
- Put a new procedure mask
- Put the visor and the N95 mask in a cabinet for this purpose in the dressing room
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An emergency on the alert
A commotion in the emergency room of the Verdun Hospital: a patient arrives in an ambulance in respiratory distress.
Photo Hugo Duchaine
Emergency caregivers monitor a patient in respiratory distress through the window of an adjacent room, to reduce the risk of infection.
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Half of the medical team put on protective gear to travel to their bedside in a negative pressure chamber, which sucks in air, limiting the spread of the virus. The other half watches through the window in the adjoining bedroom. One way to reduce the risk of contagion.
“Everything is more complicated. Before, it was all open, explains Dr Jean-François Thibert. When we enter the intensive care unit, we are generally there 45 to 60 minutes, whereas before we were there about 30 minutes. Everything is twice as long with the precautions. “
The patient’s file is shown to the doctor through the window, to know his usual medication, for example. The caregivers coordinate with walkie-talkies, while the patient receives 60 liters of air per minute through his nostrils.
<img srcset="https://m1.quebecormedia.com/emp/emp/Montage99a9e1cc-7ab2-4d23-8eac-e7f81acfa72d_ORIGINAL.jpg?impolicy=crop-resize&x=0&y=0&w=2000&h=1125&width=480,
https://m1.quebecormedia.com/emp/emp/Montage99a9e1cc-7ab2-4d23-8eac-e7f81acfa72d_ORIGINAL.jpg?impolicy=crop-resize&x=0&y=0&w=2000&h=1125&width=960 2x" data-aspect-ratio="auto" data-width="" class="story-img lazyload" itemprop="thumbnailUrl" alt="Deux employées préparent la médication de patients dans la zone rouge (en mortaise) du 5e south floor of the Verdun Hospital.”/>
Hugo Duchaine pictures
Two employees prepare medication for patients in the red zone (mortise) of 5e south floor of the Verdun Hospital.
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Within minutes, the patient’s condition stabilizes. A drug test will have to determine if he had COVID-19, but here, no risk is taken.
The old ambulance garage has been transformed to serve as a pre-triage room. Patients who arrive are screened and isolated if there is any doubt that they have COVID-19.
These precautions mean that each shift must have three nurses and two more attendants than before the pandemic.
Ground zero
<img srcset="https://m1.quebecormedia.com/emp/emp/63802865_33555413da2b9c-fc69-46ef-a0bc-6f75d5a3eb57_ORIGINAL.jpg?impolicy=crop-resize&x=0&y=0&w=2000&h=1125&width=480,
https://m1.quebecormedia.com/emp/emp/63802865_33555413da2b9c-fc69-46ef-a0bc-6f75d5a3eb57_ORIGINAL.jpg?impolicy=crop-resize&x=0&y=0&w=2000&h=1125&width=960 2x" data-aspect-ratio="auto" data-width="" class="story-img lazyload" itemprop="thumbnailUrl" alt="C’est dans cette pièce que la première patiente atteinte du coronavirus a été hébergée. C’est en quelque sorte le Ground Zero of COVID-19 in Quebec.”/>
Photo Hugo Duchaine
It is in this room that the first patient with the coronavirus was accommodated. It is in a way the Ground Zero of COVID-19 in Quebec.
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The Hospital was the Ground Zero of COVID-19 in Quebec, as explained by Dr Thibert, by welcoming the very first infected patient at the end of February 2020, a traveler returning from Iran.
Photo Hugo Duchaine
These baby monitors are used to monitor the sick.
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Walls were quickly built to separate beds, which previously were only divided by a curtain. To avoid going into rooms too often and talking to staff inside, baby monitors with cameras were purchased.
Despite everything that is implemented, the emergency experienced a small outbreak during the holidays, when employees became infected with each other.
This is why vigilance is always required. Head nurse Érika Fontaine-Pagé remains on the lookout and does not hesitate to send a resident doctor back to the locker room who has forgotten to put on his gown.
Sick employees return to the front lines
“I was scared,” says nurse Dominique Demers about her battle with COVID-19 during the first wave. A fight that kept her away from the front for months.
Despite her fears, the 52-year-old head nurse did not hesitate when asked to lead the COVID-19 hospitalization unit at the Verdun Hospital.
“When I came back, I said to myself: I understand what’s going on,” she said, knowing the dangers that awaited her colleagues. Because the virus grabbed her by surprise, like a car accident, from the start of the pandemic.
“The first wave was really hell,” adds nurse Joelle Djomo. We weren’t equipped enough, we didn’t have any material and the directives were a bit … they changed every hour. “
Isolated from her children
The mother of four was infected, thankfully without symptoms, but locked herself in a small room for 14 days to protect her family.
” It was hard. [Les enfants] know you’re there, but you can’t open, you have to stay there. “
On her return, she also saw her workload explode. As a nurse, she was responsible for at least 10 patients before the load shedding began.
Too many, she said, for patients whose condition can change in a few hours and whose families, deprived of visits, must be kept informed daily.
Stéphanie Malaval is one of these nurses who came to reinforce the load shedding.
“It’s very pleasant to work with them,” she says. Knowing that they, it’s been a year … A year that they have been working like crazy to try to eradicate this virus. ”
But the nurse asks Quebecers to remain cautious, because caregivers are eager to take vacations, she continues. She dreams of lying in the sun or taking the plane to see her mother in France, for example.
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