“I stayed on the same stretcher for 24 hours without eating anything”. These chilling words were written by 98-year-old Madeleine Rifo after her visit to the emergency department of the Lariboisier Hospital (Paris). In a column published on Monday September 19th on the General Review website and addressed to Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), he denounces the conditions of his care at this Paris health facility on Sunday September 4th. A situation he presents as such “Millions of Parisians and Frenchmen”.
He explains that he went to the emergency room that day “Important for examination due to prolonged Covid”. In her letter, Madeleine Rifo writes that she “Found lying in the middle of patients screaming in pain, anger, abandonment, whatever. And the nurses were running there overwhelmed. This former resistance fighter, who says he is blind, says he crossed what he thought was a yard. “It was colder, that’s all I can say. And then they left me there without any work, without a means of communication with my relatives..
However, he, who was also a war correspondent, does not overburden the nursing staff. “Nurses and carers, I know them well, I’ve lived amongst them, I know they would desperately like to be able to take care of everyone.”, he notes. “My plight in a French hospital is a daily story», he claims.
For AP-HP, “medicines adapted to his situation were distributed”.
In a press release published this Tuesday, September 20, AP-HP gave its version of the facts, reviewing Madeleine Rifo’s case.. “On September 4, 2022, at 12:10 p.m., the patient presented himself alone in an ambulance to the emergency department of the Lariboisier hospital. He was met by the Reception and Orientation Nurse, checked in to the service’s care ring, then examined at 12.25pm by a senior doctor who ordered a number of tests. Biological samples were taken at 12:43 and a scanner at 17:25. In the evening, the patient was transferred to the short-term hospitalization section of the emergency department. On the morning of September 5, after the doctor’s clinical examination, the patient was transferred to another medical facility appropriate to his health condition.», explains AP-HP.
The public institution adds that “Thus, the patient was regularly provided with technical gestures, care and monitoring during his treatment. He was provided with medicines tailored to his situation.. AP-HP concludes by providing that it attaches “ quickly and fully clarify the conditions under which [Madeleine Riffaud] informed and accompanied throughout his stay at the Lariboiser hospital.’.
Source: Le Figaro
