AP wins rare all-formats access — 24 hours in a Marseille ICU as COVID-19 cases surge in France.
Just as a second surge of coronavirus cases peaked in France, Associated Press journalists secured exclusive, hard-won access to an ICU ward, dramatically documenting for AP clients in all formats exhausted medical workers desperately worked to keep even one bed open in the struggle to save lives.
Spending 24 hours straight in southern France’s largest hospital, AP freelance photographer/video journalist Daniel Cole and AP global enterprise reporter Lori Hinnant delivered a searing package of photos, video and text.
A medical worker peers through the window of e ICU room of a COVID-19 patient at La Timone hospital in Marseille, southern France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
A 60-year-old COVID-19 patient is seen through the window of an ICU room at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
A 60-year-old COVID-19 patient is transferred to the main ICU from a makeshift wing that could not support both the dialysis and respirator machines necessary for his worsening condition, at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Nurses clean and adjust an endotracheal tube providing respiratory assistance to a 61-year-old COVID-19 patient in the ICU of La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Medical personnel begin settling a 60-year-old COVID-19 patient into a room with oxygen and dialysis machines after he was transferred from a makeshift wing to the main ICU at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Dr. Julien Carvelli touches his brow after speaking to the relative of a sedated COVID-19 patient who was being treated in the ICU of La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020. Dr. Carvelli phones families hit by the second wave of the coronavirus with updates on the condition of their children, husbands, wives.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
A telephone wrapped in a latex glove rests on an x-ray machine in a makeshift COVID-19 ICU ward at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Workers wearing layers of plastic protective prepare to clean rooms of a makeshift ICU at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
At the end of her shift, 26-year-old Nurse Pauline Reynier, at left with back to camera, updates the night shift nurses on the status of COVID-19 patients in a makeshift ICU at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
With mask indentations visible on her face, nurse Marie-Laure Satta chats with a fellow nurse in the supply closet of a makeshift ICU at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
A nurse finishes a snack as a speech by French Prime Minister Jean Castex is played on the news in the ICU break room at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
A temporary barricade fastened to a hospital corridor with duct tape seals off an acute care wing that was recently refashioned into a makeshift COVID-19 ICU ward at at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Lighted hospital rooms reflected in a vacant corridor during the night shift at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 13, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
A hospital worker takes a break on a balcony as the day shift comes to an end and night falls upon La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Portable intensive care beds with oxygen tanks are positioned on the rooftop of La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, as the sun rises, Nov. 13, 2020. Marseille has been inundated with coronavirus cases since September. The port city, on France’s Mediterranean coast, was spared the worst of the virus last spring only to be hit with a vengeance as the summer vacation season wound down.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
A nurse dressed in protective gear rubs her protective gloves with sanitizer after entering the makeshift ICU room of a COVID-19 patient during the night shift at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 13, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
In a long exposure, a medical team treats a COVID-19 patient in the ICU at at La Timone hospital in Marseille, southern France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Nurses clean the chest of a 61-year-old COVID-19 patient during a routine check on the patient’s hygiene and condition in the main ICU of La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
A night shift nurse watches through the window of a makeshift ICU room as nurses install a newly admitted COVID-19 patient whose worsening condition forced doctors to fill the last available COVID-19 ICU bed at La Timone hospital, in Marseille, France, Nov. 13, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
An empty corridor leading to the the COVID-19 ICU at La Timone hospital is pictured at night in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Night shift nurses take a smoke break outside the entrance to the COVID-19 ICU at La Timone hospital during the early morning hours in Marseille, France, Nov. 13, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Nurses chat in the break room of the ICU at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Cardiology nurse Pauline Reynier, 26, dons a mask as she leaves her shift at La Timone hospital in Marseille, Nov. 12, 2020, after her second day working in the COVID-19 ICU. Reynier was called up to reinforce a fatigued and dwindling nursing staff at the peak of France’s second surge of coronavirus cases.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Cole fought for months for access to La Timone hospital in Marseille. In early November, he had managed to photograph a small military hospital ICU in the region. The main doctor at that hospital was so pleased with Cole’s respectful coverage that he recommended him to a colleague at La Timone. Backed by that doctor, Cole got a green light from local public health authorities and then successfully pressed for more than the usual couple of hours inside the facility, to set AP’s coverage apart for its clients.
Cole and Hinnant prepared methodically for their 24-hour stay. They stocked up on PPE to protect themselves against the virus, as well as bottled water, bread, fruit, cheese, ham and rice cakes.
They spent most of their time observing and documenting the ICU, staying far enough out of the way of the doctors and nurses but close enough that they could see and hear what was happening as the day turned into night and then turned into the next morning. They snatched a few hours of sleep in a meeting room.
“The biggest challenge was to be both non-intrusive and present at the crucial moments of the day and night,” Hinnant recalled. “I spent a lot of time chatting with the doctors and nurses with my notebook closed, and then, when they’d go off for a task, frantically recapping the conversation in my notebook along with the time. And both of us wandered around a lot until something caught our eye, checking records without anyone trying to conceal details, room numbers, asking what was happening at a given moment.”
By spending 24 hours embedded with the ICU team, rather than just doing a series of short interviews and then dashing out to file, they came away with an intimate knowledge of how the medical staff and patients were coping with the virus surge.
The photos, text and video captured the exhaustion, loneliness and dedication in compelling detail. The ICU was full and busy, but the rest of the hospital was quiet and empty as Cole and Hinnant documented what it was like to desperately try to save lives and keep the whole medical system from collapsing at a time when pandemic fatigue has set in across the world.
Emerging from the ICU after morning had broken, Cole and Hinnant immediately set to editing and producing their finished products. Their quick turnaround delivered the reporting with newsy timing for AP clients: On the day the all-formats package ran, France’s ICU admissions from the surge peaked.
Cardiology nurse Pauline Reynier pauses briefly during her second day in a makeshift COVID-19 ICU ward at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, Nov. 12, 2020. Reynier had been called up to reinforce a fatigued and dwindling nursing staff at the peak of France’s second surge of coronavirus cases.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
Cole fought for months for access to La Timone, the largest hospital in southern France.
The work grabbed attention across Europe and especially in France. The photos appeared on multiple French news websites, while the reporting fed into a French podcast and the video was used by French broadcasters.
Cole’s video and six-minute edit was used by more than 120 channels and had nearly 600 hits globally.
The pair's impressive work is already bolstering efforts to open doors at other facilities. And the World Health Organization appeared to reference the reporting in a briefing, seemingly borrowing wording from Hinnant’s poignant and exquisitely detailed text.
For their dogged pursuit of access, tireless reporting and sensitive, compelling and timely storytelling, Cole and Hinnant earn AP’s Best of the Week award.
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