“I was extremely surprised at the level of violence and the number of injured, testifies Justin (whose first name has been changed at his request), 25 years old. I expected a tense demonstration but not at this level. “He is a first aider in an approved association and he participated as a street-medic in the mobilization against the megabasins, these water reservoirs which must make it possible to irrigate certain farms in summer, in Sainte-Soline, this Saturday March 25 . About 200 wounded (read framed) were counted by the three organizations (Les Uprisings of the Earth, Basins no thank you and the Confédération Paysanne) among the demonstrators. According to the authorities, there would be 37 wounded among the police.
Dressed in a street medic T-shirt and loaded with a 20 kg bag of first aid equipment, the young rescuer was quickly asked for his skills, as soon as he arrived near the basin (still empty), surrounded by the police.
The six kilometer walk from the base camp of the mobilization, located outside the perimeter prohibited by the prefecture, to the surroundings of the basin takes place without incident. As the construction site approaches, things get tough very quickly. “For thirty seconds that I was near what we can call a battlefield or a front, I found myself working on a big wound in the foot, with a suspicion of fracture, he says. There was no more flesh, the victim had a hole in the foot. »
An influx of wounded, with serious injuries
“I was in Paris for the yellow vests and during these mobilizations we had fewer victims. And, they arrived over three to four hours, with every half hour a somewhat serious victim, he remembers. There, it was a great intensity over a short time, we took care of around forty serious victims, in less than an hour”. With an injured person every minute or so, rescuers have no time to breathe. In other circumstances, a NOVI plan (an emergency plan to rescue a large number of victims in the same place) would have been triggered, he believes.
He treats large wounds in the feet, legs, mainly caused by disencirclement grenades, head wounds attributable to the LBD. It also supports very impressive facial wounds, consequences of the use of explosive grenades (GM2L). “These are the ones that have disfigured people,” says the rescuer. I treated one who no longer had a nose… These are serious wounds that will leave their mark on the activists. Accustomed to providing first aid gestures, he is nonetheless struck by certain injuries. “We really treated war wounds, many of which required ‘Israeli’ dressings, that is to say, which are used by the Israeli army for gunshot wounds to allow compression in the field, the time to see a doctor. »
Evacuation difficulties
A kind of advanced infirmary was installed on a dirt road, 300 or 400 meters from the clashes, so as not to leave injured people near the explosions. “We ensured the stabilization of the victims with the little equipment we had, but we did not have enough resources to evacuate them,” says Justin. Those who had to be laid down were transported in a disused ambulance which could pass a priori, to the base camp (6 km from the clashes). »
Those who could be seated, we were installed in cars but some would have been blocked. “We had to send deputies in the cars to make the link between the advanced infirmary and the base camp in which doctors and nurses could make a more in-depth assessment”, he specifies. The victims and witnesses remained calm, which facilitated the work of the rescuers. “We have reached a level of violence that must not happen again”, warns Justin, mobilized this Tuesday with his first aid equipment on the Bordeaux demonstration against the pension reform.