At La Timone, sick children placed in solitary confinement in a specialized unit

“Hi Rayane! Rest well. The little boy walks alongside his mother along the corridors of the Timone hospital, in Marseille, and finally pushes the door that connects him to the outside world. For him and his mother, time seemed a bit long, locked up for almost six days in these few square meters.

A week earlier, Rayane, who tested positive, had to be hospitalized and placed in solitary confinement in this special unit dedicated to children with coronavirus and other chronic illnesses, ranging from disability to epilepsy. And for good reason, according to Professor Brigitte Chabrol, head of the pediatrics and neuropediatrics department at the Timone children’s hospital, “Covid-19 infection in these children leads to decompensation of their underlying diseases. »

Children from 0 to 18 years old

Since mid-December, a special area of ​​the hospital, which can accommodate six children and their parents, in isolation, has been set up on the sixth floor. At the end of the corridor, Alizée cuddles her little Maëlys, intubated in a cot. The mother and her baby, suffering from a genetic disease, arrived the day before in this unit. “She had a high fever, and the paracetamol was not working,” says Alizée. The dad obviously caught the Covid at the same time as his third dose, and it is believed that he passed it on to him and to me. We do not meet anyone yet. We go out very little, as she is disabled…”

In order to limit the risk of spreading the virus, parents who accompany their children are also placed in isolation alongside their little one, while they are hospitalized. “And we disinfect after each outing,” reports Vanessa, one of the nurses in this service. To take care of young patients, aged 0 to 18, caregivers put on a specific gown, which they remove each time they leave the room. All the care equipment also remains in this small corridor, in order to avoid contaminating the rest of the pediatric department.

245 children in one year

It must be said that, for several months now, Timone has been facing a large flow of young children sick with coronavirus. In 2020, 75 children had been hospitalized after being infected with Covid-19. A year later, they are 245. And up to 14 children at the same time have been cared for in the various units of the pediatric hospital. “We find among these children, newborns who are not even a fortnight old, and who have difficulty eating and fever, lists Professor Chabrol. We also have children of all ages with chronic illnesses. And finally children who have complications, carriers of the syndrome says Pims. »

This disease, also called pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, corresponds to a complication of Covid-19 which occurs in children four to six weeks after infection. “It is manifested by a high fever and sometimes, cardiac damage and abdominal pain, specifies Professor Chabrol. And we are the most affected region after Île-de-France. “While the vaccination of children slips, the doctor appeals to the parents. “We must stop the circulation of the virus,” said Professor Charbol. Therefore, children and adults must be vaccinated. So far, we have had almost no Pims in vaccinated children. »

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