Sophie Faille, an emergency doctor, was selected to be the doctor at the French scientific base Dumont d’Urville in Antarctica for 15 months. The 4th episode tells us about her work as a doctor in a place cut off from the world.
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Published
Reading time: 4 min
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Today, Doctor Sophie Faille puts on her dentist’s cap. On the chair of the dental office, Stéphane, weather forecaster.I lost a piece of tooth” he explains. Sophie Faille is originally an emergency doctor. Cavities, fractures, appendicitis, here she has to practice what is called isolated medicine. “ We have five months of training before going to a military hospital and that includes dental training in surgery.” she explains. “These are things that we absolutely do not do in our training to be a doctor and in particular an emergency doctor. And I started from zero in dentistry, I did not even know the anatomy of a tooth. And now I am the only dentist in the station until next November“, continues the young woman.
In an isolated environment, you also have to manage isolation and the morale of your comrades. Sophie Faille is also a psychologist, she has to watch over everyone’s mental health.The slightest event takes on proportions that are not usual in metropolitan France.she sums up. Since we don’t have anyone around us, no one close to us, at least at the beginning, we need to be able to tell someone that something has happened. Very often, it’s the doctor.“.
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We are in building no. 42, upstairs are the dormitories, and on the ground floor is the hospital, Sophie Faille’s workplace, with a dental office, a room for taking x-rays, and another for treatment.I have everything there that is needed for routine care, bandages for example. I can make plasters, I can look at eyes, I can look at ears.“, she explains. The building also includes a small operating room, should there be a need to operate on a resident of the base.”I’m the only one who’s trained in this. And my assistants would be my co-winterers, that I have trained or that I continue to train regularly ” she explains.
Still in the hospital is Sophie Faille’s room. The base is so full in the summer that most of the rooms are doubled.Most people live in pairs. I am sure I will be alone all the time.“, she confides. She is also one of the few who has a set of keys. Locking doors is not “safe“in case of fire and”there is no one to steal“, if she has this set of keys, it is above all for the “pharmacy” And “confidentiality of medical records“.
“My life in Antarctica”, an original franceinfo podcast by Solenne Le Hen, broadcast by Thomas Coudreuse, to be found on the franceinfo website, the Radio France application and several other platforms such as Apple podcasts, Podcast Addict, Spotify, or Deezer.