During his mission, the caregiver contributed to 150 operations in the operating theater of the field hospital set up by Civil Security in Mamoudzou. This Thursday, January 2, in Dijon, he detailed his activity and shared his most touching memories.
“The field hospital was set up on the other side of the world in less than 36 hours with the French flag.” Firefighters effectively deployed emergency infrastructure in a stadium on the island of Grande-Terre, in Mayotte, after the passage of tropical cyclone Chido on the Comoros archipelago on December 14.
Doctor Sébastien Mirek, anesthetist-resuscitator, head of the intensive care unit of the Hospices Civils de Beaune, and volunteer firefighter as doctor-captain attached to the Bligny-sur-Ouche barracks, was a key player in this Civil Security disaster infrastructure.
Volunteer to intervene in Mayotte
As part of a national appeal, after selection of volunteers by the eastern defense zone, the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of Côte-d'Or (SDIS 21) sent two firefighters to Mayotte: doctor-captain Sébastien Mirek, who left on December 16, and lieutenant Sébastien Jeannin, who left on December 20 (read the press release).
Having just returned to Dijon, this Thursday, January 2, 2025, Doctor Sébastien Mirek testified about his work as a caregiver to the population of the island devastated by the cyclone.
The Civil Security field hospital
Certified by the World Health Organization, the Rapid Civil Security Medical Response Element (ESCRIM) can be deployed following natural disasters. The air transportable equipment is based in Nîmes and is implemented by the SDIS du Gard.
Designed by firefighters after the earthquake in Mexico in 1985, it constitutes, according to the Ministry of the Interior, “a state-of-the-art field hospital”. “ESCRIM makes it possible to care for patients with a quality of service comparable to a brick-and-mortar structure, with the exception of certain specialties such as cardiac surgery or major neurosurgery.”
The field hospital is designed for 150 patients per day. It has two operating theaters, a maternity ward, an intensive care-resuscitation unit, a laboratory and an x-ray department.
It is armed by around thirty Gard firefighters, professionals and volunteers, reinforced by around forty rescuers, generally from civil security military units but can also come from other units. Among them, around fifty medical personnel: doctors, pharmacists, nurses, surgeons, anesthetists, midwives, etc.
Open ten days after the cyclone
Freight planes transported the 65 tonnes of material divided into 32 pallets representing 380 cubic meters. First a trip in an Antonov du Gard to Reunion Island then five Airbus A400M rotations to Petite-Terre airport and finally transport by barges to Grande-Terre.
Civil Security opened this field hospital in the Cavani stadium, in Mamoudzou, on December 24, when the activity of the Mamoudzou hospital center (CHM) had fallen to 60%.
However, the cyclone alert had led to medical evacuations of patients from the CHM to Reunion, ahead of Chido's arrival, in order to reduce the workload in the face of the announced disaster, particularly in the intensive care unit. of the CHM.
However, from its first days of activity, ESCRIM experienced peaks of 300 patients per day, including 25 operations.
“We have an attachment to Mayotte”
“We participated in the deployment of the ESCRIM field hospital,” summarizes Doctor Sébastien Mirek, barely arriving on Côte-d’Orien soil, “it’s a difficult but extremely rewarding adventure in the service of the population.” “I thank my partner, our children, our family who actually allowed me to leave. (…) We have an attachment to Mayotte.”
The 42-year-old caregiver knew the islands of the French department of Mayotte having led a mission in 2023 within the CHM with his wife, a nurse and also a volunteer with SDIS 21.
“I saw the island completely changed with vegetation totally transformed, buildings totally destroyed,” he testifies, “the island really suffered from this cyclone.” “There are no more palm trees. The hills filled with palm trees, there is nothing left, you can barely see the trunks. (…) Boats are stranded almost everywhere. (…) On Grande-Terre, permanent housing has suffered and all shantytown-type dwellings are completely on the ground.”
Many injuries linked to sheet metal
In Mayotte, the anesthesiologist-resuscitator carried out his activity as in Beaune, working with Professor Sébastien Gaujoux, visceral surgeon at Pitié-Salpétrière, in Paris, and Doctor Louis Brac, anesthesiologist-resuscitator at the Annecy Genevois hospital center.
At 35°C, the caregiver spent the entire mission at the operating theater level with just a few exits nearby to help the teams prioritize patients waiting outside the stadium or up to the CHM to organize the lines care.
“Through my specialty as an anesthetist-resuscitator, I know these specificities in emergency medicine, in intensive resuscitation medicine,” he emphasizes. “The few days before the deployment, we worked a lot with our team to be able to coordinate our protocols, no one knew each other, we have this habit of adaptation. On arrival, we were operational straight away.”
“There were many injuries linked to wounds, linked to the cyclone, direct or indirect, (…) injuries from sheet metal, (…) wounds on the limbs which become infected,” he indicates.
Some patients who were amputated at the field hospital were treated at the Mamoudzou hospital center to consider rehabilitation. The same goes for life-threatening emergencies: “there must be no loss of opportunity, we stabilize on site and, as soon as we have stabilized, we make the transfer”.
“It’s a collective success”
In seven days, Doctor Sébastien Mirek participated in 150 anesthetic and surgical interventions.
“It’s a collective success. (…) It’s trying but the collective means that we manage to hold on,” he testifies, “I remember the smiles of patients, children, mothers and thanks”. “The feedback we got on site is that the population is very satisfied with this support. (…) We never had a tense situation. (…) From inside the hospital, they realize that the State is very present. (…) Our objective, which was fulfilled, is to take care of everyone, as we do in the hospital.”
“I remember images of teamwork which are quite strong, in fact, and which marked us”, he adds, “we had the impression of being useful for the population, for the hospital , for the health authorities. “ESCRIM played its role well on site.”
“It was important that politicians could see the working conditions”
Immersed in his activity, the caregiver remained at a distance from the media controversies concerning in particular the travel of members of the national executive to Mayotte.
“The field hospital was running at full capacity,” insists Doctor Sébastien Mirek. Even during the visit of Prime Minister François Bayrou: “we had our heads in the handlebars working”.
“It was important that politicians could also see the working conditions, the same as in mainland France, with an operating room, an intensive care unit,” he considers.
The caregiver will remember the meeting between a young man, a limb amputee, alone in Mayotte, and the ministers who came to greet him: “afterwards, I gave him the photos of this visit, he had tears in his eyes and I had them too.” “It’s a way of saying that France is present.”
A birth on Christmas Eve
Among the memories of this mission, the caregiver keeps in mind the care of a mother who gave birth in a car in the stadium parking lot, on the evening of December 24: “it was for Christmas Eve, I “I was the first to intervene, we took care of the mother and the baby who was transferred to Mamoudzou hospital because he had suffered a little from this rapid birth.”
“This is the first baby at ESCRIM,” he notes with emotion, “all the caregivers who were there remember the look in the eyes of this child called Anna.” “I got some news, she is doing well and so is her mother.”
A future feedback with the SDIS 21 and the SDIS 30
As on the outward journey, the return trip was made in several stages with a one-day stopover in Reunion then a transfer with an SDIS 21 vehicle from an Ile-de-France airport to Dijon.
After undoubtedly a future visit to the Beaune hospital to greet the team which ensured continuity of care, Doctor Sébastien Mirek will return to the intensive care unit next week.
As for the firefighters, reports were regularly sent by the doctor-captain. A future feedback is planned with the teams of SDIS 21, in particular of the Medical Health Emergency Service (SSSM), as well as with those of SDIS 30 to consider “improvements” in the care of ESCRIM patients .
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
In the center, doctor-captain Sébastien Mirek on his return to Côte-d'Or, January 2, 2025, in Dijon (photograph JC Tardivon)
ESCRIM, Civil Security field hospital (illustrative image SDIS 30)
An intervention in ESCRIM, in Mamoudzou (photograph C. Hiebler / SDIS 30)
Caring for a baby at the ESCRIM maternity ward, in Mamoudzou (photograph C. Hiebler / SDIS 30)
Doctor Sébastien Mirek in the operating room of ESCRIM, in Mamoudzou (DR)
From left to right: Doctor Sébastien Mirek, Professor Sébastien Gaujoux and Doctor Louis Brac (DR)
