2023-07-03 11:24:00
Hospital emergencies were impacted by the nights of violence that rocked several cities in France. Rioters have notably entered in number in those of Saint-Denis.
Par Olivier Hertel
Published on 07/03/2023 at 1:24 p.m.
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Inevitably, the emergency services have been impacted by the riots of recent days, but it is not always clear whether the injured who are pouring in are victims of the incidents that have erupted for several nights. As explained to us by Dr. Mathias Wargon, head of the emergency department at Delafontaine hospital and his Smur (Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Service) in Saint-Denis (93).
Point : What consequences did the riots have on your service at the hospital?
Mathias Wargon: During the night from Thursday to Friday, we experienced an invasion of the emergency room with verbal attacks from the staff. It was a bit tense because 25 to 30 rioters arrived at the same time. But, the other nights, it went pretty well. We have secured the hospital, in particular the entrance to the emergency room which opens directly onto the street. We got a few more rioters. There was also a fire last night in a parking lot in Saint-Denis where a firefighter died. I don’t know exactly what happened and if there is a link with the riots [aucun lien n’a été fait entre les émeutes et la mort de ce jeune soldat du feu, NDLR]. We received people who lived above with suspected carbon dioxide poisoning.
What exactly happened on the night of Thursday to Friday?
Wounded rioters were brought in by their friends. And their friends behaved very badly. They wanted to be taken care of right away. They were aggressive with the staff. They were probably a little intoxicated with their own violence. The problem is that there were no police because it was the worst part of the night. Calls to the police went unanswered. But they eventually arrived. They took out the rioters. Then they left. The rioters returned once more. The police came back to empty them. On Friday morning the staff was very shocked by that night. Fortunately, it went well overall. I had two female doctors, foreigners, who remained very zen. In fact, we are quite used to this violence.
READ ALSORiots: on social networks, young people dividedRoughly, how many wounded did you receive and how old were they?
The first night, we had a dozen of them, young people in their twenties. The second night, from Friday to Saturday, five or six. From Saturday to Sunday, not much. And that night, the teams were unable to give me this information. We still have the impression that it’s going down, but I don’t have precise data. Impossible to know who is coming because of the riots and who is coming for something else. Inevitably, the rioters do not tell us why they are there. The first night, yes, it was obvious, it was from the riots. The following nights, they claimed to have fallen off scooters, for example. On the other hand, we had gunshot wounds and stab wounds. Here once more, it is difficult to know what the responsibilities are. There may also have been settling of scores between bands. Everything was very confused.
Do we know the origin of bullet and stab wounds?
No. We were to receive a bullet wound, but he never arrived in the emergency room because he was regulated and taken care of elsewhere. As for stab wounds, we have them regularly. But there, it was probably in connection with the riots. There were still a few serious injuries that required a visit to the operating room, as well as significant trauma, people falling, being hit, etc. But people don’t tell us how it happened, if it was related to the riots. They lie to us a little. There is still an anecdote that amused us: on the night of Thursday to Friday, a person presented himself with a major knee trauma. She told us that she had done this to herself at football…
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