A decontamination cube to deal “as quickly as possible” with chemical alerts

It is not supposed to be used every day, far from it. “But the objective is to be as reactive as possible on D-Day”, explains Delphine Douillet, emergency doctor at the University Hospital of Angers. The Angevin public hospital has just equipped itself with an innovative device to deal with chemical, nuclear or radiological alerts: a Déconcube. This mobile module housed in a container is used to “decontaminate” the victims of a chemical terrorist attack, an industrial accident in a Seveso factory or significant exposure to phytosanitary products, for example.

Its main advantage: it can be deployed in less than 30 minutes in direct proximity to the emergency department. A team of 8 decontaminators is enough to make it work. “It’s faster and easier to set up than a traditional decontamination chain under tents”, assures the french company Util, which markets the cube. Approximately 25 casualties per hour can be supported.

Also in Ile-de-France hospitals

“Patients can be received standing up, or lying on a stretcher for those who are not able-bodied,” explains Dr. Delphine Douillet. A first airlock allows them to be showered and soaped, a second to be rinsed and to dress in a single-use outfit. The process takes about five minutes. Contaminated water is immediately collected for reprocessing. »

The effectiveness of the device makes it possible to “decontaminate the victims as quickly as possible before treatment” and “to avoid the spread of contamination inside the hospital”. At the Angers hospital, a hundred nurses, doctors and paramedics are trained in the use of the Déconcube, which will have cost the CHU 135,000 euros.

The same cube already equips half a dozen hospitals in the Ile-de-France region (Melun, Necker, Robert-Debré, Foch, Saint-Denis, etc.), reports the companyUtilis. An order was also placed with the hospital center of Besançon (Doubs) and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (Val-de-Marne).

source site