The Paris team of reporter John Leicester, photographer Francois Mori and video journalist Nicolas Garriga broke through administrative barriers to produce powerful character-driven storytelling as the staff of one of France’s largest hospitals coped with the relentless tide of COVID cases and deaths.
Since March, repeated efforts by AP to gain access to Paris hospitals inundated with virus cases had been met by “Non” — or silence. So Leicester found workarounds. During France’s first lockdown, he went to Bichat Hospital and interviewed staff outside the facility as well as on Zoom and by phone. His reporting put AP on the map for senior administrators and doctors.
Leicester then stayed in touch with hospital staff through France’s second lockdown, and interviewed a top surgeon on his morning commute by bike about how the hospital was coping better with virus patients during the second surge. Armed with that story, the surgeon then lobbied successfully for Leicester, Garriga and Mori to be allowed to spend two days in the 900-bed hospital.
Dr. Philippe Montravers is pictured outside room No. 10, hours before the patient inside died after his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19 at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020. The patient was one of 775 virus deaths in France that day.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
A patient in room No. 10 is pictured hours before he died after his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19 at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
A patient is pictured through a window in the door of room No. 10, hours before he died after his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19 at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020. Even for hospital staff for whom death is a constant, witnessing the loss of a fellow human being to COVID-19 is a churn of emotions. At the Paris hospital that recorded the first virus death outside Asia, nurses and paramedics in the intensive care unit have their own coping mechanisms.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Room No. 10 is vacant, Dec. 2, 2020, following the death of a patient who the previous evening lost his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19 at Bichat Hospital in Paris.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Dr. Philippe Montravers poses for a photo outside room No. 10, hours before the patient inside died after his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19 at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020. The patient was one of 775 virus deaths in France that day.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Placards reading “Be Courteous with the Staff” and “All Verbal or Physical Aggression with the Hospital Staff is liable to Criminal Prosecution” are postted on a wall at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Psychologist Emmanuelle Busch, center, speaks with medical staff during a break at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Psychologist Emmanuelle Busch speaks with medical staff outside rooms that have COVID-19 patients at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020. Even for ICU workers for whom death is a constant — and never more so than this year — witnessing the loss of a fellow human being to the virus can be a churn of emotions. For their own good and for their patients, they try to remain detached. They have coping mechanisms. Meditation or talking helps for some.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Nurse Hyad Boina cares for a COVID-19 patient in room No. 9 at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
A nurse pauses next to room No. 5 at Bichat Hospital in Paris Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Medical staffer Alexandra Pichon Dignac pauses on the eve of a surgery at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020. One of the largest hospitals in Paris, Bichat has reopened all 22 of its operating rooms, performing surgeries that were postponed during the virus surges.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Medical staffer Alexandra Pichon Dignac pauses on the eve of a surgery at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020. One of the largest hospitals in Paris, Bichat has reopened all 22 of its operating rooms, performing surgeries that were postponed during the virus surges.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Surgeon Lara Ribeiro Parenti, right, and a medical staffer prepare for the surgery of Caroline Erganian at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 2, 2020. Hospitals are coming to terms with giant backlogs of surgeries that were postponed when COVID-19 hit.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Surgeon Lara Ribeiro Parenti, second from left, operates on patient Caroline Erganian at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 2, 2020. Erganian, 58, hoped to shed more than a third of her weight and be free of knee and back pain, and her cane, as a result of having a large part of her stomach removed. She prayed in the final weeks that her phone wouldn't ring with news of another delay due to the pandemic.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
A child’s drawing reads “Elyana, 5 and a half years old. Thanks for Papy. The doctors, you are super heroes!,” next to room No.10 at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020. A few hours later the patient there died after his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19.
A child’s drawing reads “Elyana, 5 and a half years old. Thanks for Papy. The doctors, you are super heroes!,” next to room No.10 at Bichat Hospital in Paris, Dec. 1, 2020. A few hours later the patient there died after his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19.
The access allowed the team to report on the last hours of a patient who died of COVID complications, and from inside an operating room as surgeons performed procedures after months of COVID delays.
The team’s harrowing report on the virus patient’s death in the ICU drew praise from staff at rival publications. “Beautiful and heart-wrenching,” said a New York Times staffer. An editor at New York Magazine called it “tender, beautiful, and bitter,” while the hospital’s surgical ICU chief called it “a brilliant display of the daily reality in ICU.” The New York Post was among AP clients that used the story in its entirety.
The team’s two video packages, with striking coverage of the dying patient and character-driven storytelling about postponed surgeries, were well-received by AP clients, including major broadcaster France24 and important German client Welt.
AP crossformat journalists pose together while embedded at Bichat Hospital in Paris. From left, video journalist Nicolas Garriga, correspondent John Leicester and photographer Francois Mori.
AP Photo / Nicolas Garriga