faced with the shootings in Marseille, hospitals are being trained in war medicine

In the intensive care unit of the Hôpital Nord de Marseille, there are 15 beds, most of them occupied by people with gunshot wounds. “We have them all the time. Today we have four,” underline Professor Marc Leone, head of the service, twenty years of experience in the hospital service. “Gunshot wounds are undeniably increasing. We receive about 20 to 25 patients a year, but here we have already had 28 patients in 2023”. Since the beginning of the year, shootings on the background of drug trafficking have indeed multiplied in the Marseille city.

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These wounds are very “deep with bullet trajectories that are unpredictable since the bullets change trajectory on contact with different tissues”. Each time a wounded person arrives, caregivers first work to identify the organs affected. A way of operating that is similar to war medicine: “We have many colleagues from the army, who have already intervened in a war zone, who have told us about their experiences”, explains Marc Leone.

Younger casualties

In the intensive care unit, the past of the victims is put aside. “We take care of people, all people equally, no matter what happened, emphasizes the teacher. Finally, the story before admission to this intensive care unit does not concern us.” But the faces of the injured do not deceive: the injured are increasingly young, sometimes teenagers.

“We were 16, 15 years old”, sighs Doctor Gary Duclos. This reality weighs on the morale of health personnel. “We try to keep the emotions outside the doors of the resuscitation”, assures Amandine Abelaud, head nurse. Before sliding: “It’s true that we see them arriving at younger and younger ages with devastated families. It’s a care that is quite complex because we fear for our safety too. Unfortunately, it’s sure that it’s It’s dramatic what’s happening, it’s heartbreaking because, as I said, they are terribly young and carefree.”

These young people are also determined: “We sometimes have speeches from young men who say they are waiting to get out for revenge. We try to reason with them, but it’s complicated, it’s endless.” These young people are therefore sometimes saved by his caregivers, but these young people are very quickly replaced by other victims.