The calm that reigns in the emergency department of the Colmar hospital is quite deceptive because this Haut-Rhin establishment is under pressure at the end of 2021 because of the fifth wave of Covid-19. The pressure has been such for three weeks that Yannick Gottwalles, head of the emergency department, had to open beds in the intensive care unit: “There has been a more than 20% increase in capacity in the ward and five new critical care beds will be open normally today.“
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The fifth epidemic wave is hitting this hospital head-on, when it is difficult to find the staff to be able to continue to open beds in the days or weeks to come. “I sincerely think this is our maximum limit, says Yannick Gottwalles. As much during the first wave, we lacked material and available places, as much during this fifth wave, we lack arms, fighters. “
According to the head of emergencies, arms are lacking in all sectors and all services “whether it is nursing assistants, operating room nurses, those in the conventional sector, doctors, all professional categories are affected”. To protest against this situation, caregivers from Colmar hospital, and others in the region, will perform a minute of silence in the early afternoon on Friday. “For the 30 to 40 years before, there was a management that became disastrous for the hospital with major budget cuts, constant bed closures and staff restrictions, denounces Yannick Gottwalles. We come to a situation where we feel that the hospital is hanging by a single thread. It is not the plasters that have been put on lately that will be enough to bring it up. “
Alsace was one of the first regions affected by the Covid-19 epidemic in March 2020. Almost two years later, the fifth wave brings about the return of restrictions for families who cannot go to intensive care to visit their relatives. The hospital must also transfer patients to other regions again to make room in the intensive care units, says the head of the emergency department.
In this Colmar hospital, during the very first wave, Jean-Jacques Better, 70, was sent to Limoges at that time. He is now in great shape. This restaurateur, boss of the Umih du Haut-Rhin professional federation, happily found his stand at the Colmar Christmas market in 2021. “You go back to a normal life, he rejoices. Christmas markets, you get up at 6 a.m., go to bed at 11 a.m. or midnight. I do exactly what I did before. “
Breathless, sometimes a little short, Jean-Jacques Better struggles to mention this March 23, 2020, his admission to the Colmar emergency room, his plunge into a coma and his awakening on the other side of France: “I woke up 17 days later in Limoges. You find yourself wearing equipment everywhere, you don’t understand anything. You feel that the nurses are coming to wash you, you are surprised.” The restaurateur is also extremely tired the first time he shaves, he has to take a break in the middle. He followed two weeks of rehabilitation at Guéret before returning to Colmar, where he now sees resuscitation again filling up.
“We can see that those who are in intensive care are almost only unvaccinated. I would be political, I would force them [à se vacciner]”
Jean-Jacques Betterto franceinfo
Jean-Jacques Better won a friendship in his mishap. He talks regularly with the nurse who looked after him in Limoges and who came to lunch in his restaurant. A patient-caregiver bond that everyone feels at the hospital, says the head of the Colmar hospital emergency department Yannick Gottwalles: “The links persist and are very strong. These are people who have literally been saved. Their lives were saved and the majority are exceedingly grateful for the current state they are in.“
Yannick Gottwalles is part of the collective that wrote the book Tears & courage – our lives behind the masks, published by Baobab editions