“We can not choose who will live and who will die”, says Davido

INTERVIEWAre we heading towards a “sorting” of patients? In any case, this is the alert launched by Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist at Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches alongside 40 AP-HP crisis directors in the JDD. While the government is taking the time to see the effectiveness of the measures taken, professionals believe that if nothing is done, they will have no other option but to choose between the patients. A choice “heartbreaking” and contrary to the Hippocratic Oath that caregivers hope to avoid. On Europe 1, Benjamin Davido explains how heavy this situation would be.

Close hospital saturation

“The reality today, unfortunately, is a very high rate of daily contaminations which reminds us of the figures for November,” with more than 40,000 people infected per day, recalls the doctor. “Hospital saturation is very impacted. The sick look strangely like last March, that is to say relatively young people who have serious forms and for which places are increasingly rare”, explains Benjamin Davido.

Faced with this situation, medical evacuations or deprogramming are solutions but they are not without limits. As the infectious disease specialist explains, “on Friday, we discussed again in the crisis unit, especially in my hospital, the possibly complete closure of the operating room”. A decision which would not be without consequences since it will “impact patients who are in a semi emergency for surgeries”.

A situation of “disaster medicine”

Ultimately, the risk “is that at a given moment, we find ourselves in a situation where a patient comes to the emergency room with a myocardial infarction and there is no longer room in the cardiology care unit. intensive because the hospital is full of Covid patients “. If this happens “it will be a medical disaster situation, as we knew during the attacks a few years ago,” said the doctor.

Caregivers would then find themselves in an ethically complex situation, that of sorting out patients. But for Benjamin Davido, it is essential to avoid “that there is a loss of luck and that we end up having to choose between someone 50 years old and someone older. In the Hippocratic Oath , we have to treat everyone and that these decisions are ethical and that is totally beyond us. “

“We cannot choose who will live and who will die”

“We have said a lot that we are heroes. The reality is that before being heroes, we are humans. And we are not the good Lord. And we cannot choose who will live. , who will die, “said the infectious disease specialist. Above all, he recalls, that it is also possible that professionals are wrong in their choice “and it is extremely heartbreaking”.

Caregivers are also widely tested by the Covid. “It’s been over a year that we have been facing a disease that kills a lot. In intensive care, there are 25% of people who will not return home and who will die,” recalls the infectious disease specialist. “A number” of caregivers have also thrown in the towel since last March according to him and having to sort out patients would be a huge additional blow.