France's deadly heat wave
Did you ever hear about this? I didn't. From an email forward I received,
"The summer after 9/11, France lost 15,000 people in a heat wave. In August, the country basically shuts down when everyone goes on vacation. That year, a severe heat wave struck and 15,000 elderly people living in nursing homes and hospitals died. Their children didn't even leave the beaches to come back and take care of the bodies. Institutions had to scramble to find enough refrigeration units to hold the bodies until people came to claim them. This loss of life was five times bigger than 9/11 in America, yet it didn't trigger any change in French society."
USA Today coverage:
"Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei has ordered a separate special study this month to look into a possible link with vacation schedules after doctors strongly denied allegations their absence put the elderly in danger. The heat wave hit during the August vacation period, when doctors, hospital staff and many others take leave. The results of that study are expected in November."
posted by RJ @ 11:54 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I only knew about it because I have a friend who was in France that summer. I didn't know it was that bad, though.
Are you still alive? Almost a month is a long time for no dad posts. No pressure.
Can you make more clear what the point of this post is? I've been wondering for a while.
The point was, explicitly, that I hadn't heard about it and wondered if others had.
The point implicitly was that it's a big deal, and we should have heard about it.
And more implicitly, that France sucks.
Sweet.
Like Mair, the only reason I had heard about it was because of a friend who lived there at the time. Like you, I think it is a big deal and that we should have heard about it. Unlike you, I'm not so sure that the France sucks, but I do think that they probably shouldn't let the elderly die while they are on holiday.
and by "the France" I of course mean France.
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