A group of Paris doctors have offered a chilling account of how their medical teams responded in the wake of the deadly attacks broke out across Paris on Nov.13.
Published Tuesday in The Lancet, the report described “the civil application of war medicine” as doctors focused on maintaining blood pressure, ensuring consciousness, and treating victims with medication and tourniquets.
Paris’ public health system, the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP), mobilized 40 hospitals, nearly 100,000 staff members and 200 operating rooms within minutes of the first attack.
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Beginning just before 9:30 p.m. Paris time, three suicide bombers struck near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, followed by suicide bombings and mass shootings at cafés, restaurants and a hostage taking at the Bataclan concert hall.
“Never before had such a number of victims been reached and so many wounded been operated on urgently,” one of the author’s wrote.
The attackers killed 130 people, including 89 at the Bataclan theatre. More than 360 people were injured, including more than 90 who were seriously. Seven of the terrorists also died, and authorities continue to search for a remaining fugitive believe to be in Brussels.
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The accounts are written from the anonymous perspective an emergency physician, an anaesthesiologist, and a trauma surgeon and detail how 45 medical teams were deployed to the six attack sties.
“15 were kept in reserve, since we did not know how and when this nightmare would end,” the author wrote.
Medical teams focused on treating patients at the scene and controlling the “damage” as much as possible as most of the injuries were bullet related. The need for tourniquets was so high that medical teams came back without their belts, according to the report.
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The report also noted Paris public hospital system had been bracing for a terrorist attack since January, when gunmen killed 12 people at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
The anaesthesiologist said following the attacks the number of patients admitted to hospital was “far beyond” what any of the staff imagined they could treat.
Medical teams worked continuously through the night on the injured, and by Nov. 15, the hospital’s usual services resumed.
A review by staff on Nov.16 found one common observation was that all but one of the victims admitted to hospital were less than 40 years old and all patients suffered from “high-energy ballistic trauma.”
“What happened strengthens our belief that size can be combined with speed and excellence,” the authors said. “As terrorism becomes more lethal and violent, nothing will prevent the medical community from understanding, learning, and sharing knowledge to become more effective in saving lives.”
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