A minute’s silence will be observed in all hospitals in France on Wednesday to commemorate a nurse killed in a knife attack by a mentally ill man in Reims, in the east of the country, which shocked nursing staff and class politics.
“I’m asking for a minute’s silence in all hospitals tomorrow at noon in honor of Carène,” said French Health Minister François Braun. Mezino, a 37-year-old nurse whose death is “a tragedy that devastates us all.”
Despite “the many hours of care in the operating room and in the intensive care unit,” a first minute’s silence was held at the late nurse’s hospital on Tuesday, the hospital in Reims, where she worked, said.
This nurse, who was attacked on Monday, died “in the middle of the night,” said prosecutor Matthieu Bourrette, stating that “the alleged acts against the detainee” had been “reclassified as murder.”
A doctor’s assistant was also injured in this knife attack by a 59-year-old man with a serious psychiatric history.
The Minister of Health, who visited the hospital in Reims on Monday evening, announced that a meeting with professionals in the sector would be organized during the week to implement “any useful measure to safeguard the safety and life” of caregivers.
MPs and government officials also observed a minute’s silence in the National Assembly on Tuesday to commemorate the office holders after tragedy struck this nurse and three police officers who died in a clash on Sunday.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne expressed her “great sadness”.
This aggression “shakes us all up,” responded the President of the French Hospitals Federation (FHF), Arnaud Robinet, Mayor of Reims. “To attack the guardians of care, in hospitals and in the city, is to attack a certain notion of what constitutes our humanity.”
The incident took place in the occupational medicine unit for hospital workers, which is next to the psychiatric ward where the alleged attacker was being pursued, Sandrine Calvy, local hospital director for the CGT-Santé union, told AFP.
The attack “took place in the dressing room,” said Valérie Rozalski, establishment secretary-general of the CGT.
The accused, who was quickly arrested, “appears to have acted without any apparent motive, especially since he was not employed in this service,” the Reims public prosecutor said on Monday.
This man “appears to be suffering from serious disorders and has been under increased trusteeship for several years.”
The alleged attacker benefited from a “criminal irresponsibility” dismissal in June 2022 after being charged “with serious acts of violence,” the prosecutor added.
Although rudeness is common in hospitals, serious attacks on nurses in healthcare facilities remain relatively rare; the most dramatic occur in psychiatric institutions.
The sector’s second union, Force Ouvrière, denounced “the catastrophic situation in the care of the mentally ill” and called for “funds for the hospital” following “this monstrous act”.
“What just happened demonstrates once again the difficulties that the mental health sector faces due to lack of resources, staff and space,” analyzed Deborah Ridel, a sociologist at the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health (EHESP), for AFP .
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health, in 2021 in France, 29,214 people were victims of an attack (verbal or physical) in healthcare facilities, including 10,577 nurses.
Reporting by freelance doctors or hospital doctors rose 23% to 1,244 in 2022, a record since the observatory on the subject was founded in 2003, and reflecting the upward trend – or increased desire to report incidents – despite a temporary drop confirmed in 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.