That day, Claire Geneva receives us in a Samu building, behind the entrance to the Orleans hospital. But, this 36-year-old anesthetist usually works in the surgical intensive care unit. In spring 2020, she was therefore on the front line to manage the flow of Covid patients in intensive care.
– Patricia pourrez
Looking back a year, how did you deal with the arrival of the Covid epidemic in your department?
In fact, it all happened very quickly. We were of course aware of the alarming situation in eastern France. And quite quickly, we had an increase in the number of Covid cases in our two intensive care units at the CHRO. The management of critical care beds and continuing care beds quickly had to be reorganized. And very quickly, we merged the two intensive care units (medical and surgical). They were only dedicated to Covid patients. We had up to 80 beds occupied at the same time.
At that time, were the caregivers also afraid of being infected?
We quickly got over that. We were equipped with protective equipment. Moreover, the population has also contributed by bringing us masks for example. Personally, I have never felt in danger from the virus. What was important to us above all was to manage the large influx of patients.
And concretely, how was it organized?
Fortunately, we had reinforcements of nursing and paramedical personnel from other services. Afterwards, I was there almost every day with a significant increase in the number of guards and obviously impacts on our personal life. But, it was a necessary effort to overcome this crisis.
Caregivers gave a lot and it had an impact on their personal lives
On the first wave, there was this popular outpouring to support and applaud caregivers every night at 8 p.m. How did you perceive it?
It was nice to be supported. But honestly, I was so into managing the crisis that I didn’t see the impact of this support. But, we knew he was there.
Professionally, was this crisis formative?
Of course. It allows you to gain experience. Me, I have a particular appetite for crises. I had experienced the attacks of November 2015 while being stationed in Paris at the time. The Covid was something else, with a longer health crisis. But, of course, all healthcare workers have been changed by this Covid crisis.
This crisis has changed people in your opinion. But up to what point?
First of all, there is great fatigue. On this, we must be clear: we asked a lot of the teams. For example, in surgical intensive care, we doubled our activity between 2019 and 2020. It means more hours, more work and inevitably this situation has impacts on personal lives. Today, the teams are tired and in the intensive care units, there are indeed people who are considering leaving, retraining or taking availability.
It’s hard to take stock because we are not out of the crisis
For you, doctor, what was the most trying?
For me, what was psychologically hard was supporting Covid patients before they were placed in a coma. At that time, in March, they could not see their families. And when we told them that we were going to put them to sleep, they needed to verbalize the fact of not having said goodbye to their loved ones, the fact of falling asleep without knowing what happened next. We of course tried to reassure them but it was really very hard, very intense for us.
Today, a year later, what is your state of mind?
We are always on the alert: there are always tensions on the beds in critical care For the moment, we manage to manage without having to deprogram operations in the other departments of the hospital. But, everything will depend on the evolution of the epidemic. For me, in any case, it’s difficult to take stock of this year and this crisis because we are still in the crisis.
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