Thibaut Jamin, frontline volunteer
When a disaster occurs, some feel sadness, misunderstanding or empathy. For others, it’s a bubbling mix of emotions that triggers a will to act. But where do we start ? Deprived by their lack of experience, many feel useless in the face of their inability to help victims.
It is precisely this feeling that Thibault Jamin experienced during the 2015 attacks in Paris and that prompted him to engage with the French Red cross “I felt particularly touched by my profession, because things happened in concert halls and I was also a stage manager at the time. It was time for me to ask myself some questions about what I wanted to do more than my job and maybe I could help in some areas.” (2’03). To fill his feelings of frustration and anger, he decided to take first aid training.
For three years now, from fires to accidents, Thibaut Jamin has been accompanying the medical troops with his red and white coat, symbol of the French Red Cross. This team-mate - who helps the injured - is also responsible for rescue missions to the local unit of the 9th arrondissement of Paris. During Covid-19, he did not hesitate for a second to continue to engage, and to help. “The day I learned about confinement, I immediately wanted to reference everything I could, prepare myself. I relaunched my uniform, I was ready to leave right away, but it’s not the right reflex, that’s not how it happens, it has to be organized… If not, there is a risk of creating an over accident, that is, sending volunteers without sufficiently precise instructions, and potentially creating even more victims.” (6’24)
On the weekend of April 4 and 5, Thibaut Jamin participated in a rather unusual operation. Called “Chardon 7”, the mission was to move stable victims of Covid-19 on a medical train from Paris to Brittany. The principle is to put patients in resuscitation on trains, and to take them to hospitals in Franc, which are less affected by covid-19. It was an activity that had been thought of following the 2015 attacks to evacuate a large number of victims to hospital that would have places available… “When the train leaves, my role, like the other rescuers, was to make the connection between the groundgroud level which had become a complete resuscitation hospital with doctors, resuscitation equipment… and then the train floors which were living areas with complete pharmacies as in a hospital, with logistic points, oxygen reserves, emergency batteries.” (8’20)
Today, nearly 9000 first aid workers at the French Red cross share this same vocation and provide daily assistance to those affected by disasters.