in Île-de-France, the Samu sees red

Tuesday, July 19, Paris and its suburbs live below 40°C. The temperatures put the Samu under tension. Professor Lapostole is an emergency doctor in Seine-Saint-Denis. He was just called by an elderly patient. “We have an activity level that is abnormal for a period of mid-July“, he believes. The Samu was called for a foot wound, but on the spot, the doctors discover that the man is dehydrated. He is transported to the nearest hospital.

At the Samu regulation center, the calls are linked: more than 2,000 per day at the moment, or 30% more than normal. Associated with the seventh wave of Covid-19, the heat wave creates a deleterious cocktail for fragile people. The Samu is called for an 89-year-old patient. Positive for Covid-19, he had been hospitalized for several weeks, and was released the same morning. According to the emergency doctors, he may have left the hospital too quickly, in the context of the heat.