As Europe reopens, ICU teams stick with the sick and dying

PARIS (AP) — Cradling the head of the deeply sedated COVID-19 patient like a precious jewel in his hands, Dr. Alexy Tran Dinh steered his intensive-care nurses through the delicate process of rolling the woman off her stomach and onto her back, guiding the team like a dance instructor.

They moved only on Tran Dinh’s count, in unison and with extreme care, because the unconscious patient could die within minutes should they inadvertently rip the breathing tube from her mouth.

“One, two and three — onto the side," the doctor instructed.

His next order quickly followed: “Onto the back."

“Perfect,” he concluded when the move was done.

Pulling in three nurses and a burly care worker from another section of the Paris hospital, the series of coordinated movements was just one of thousands of medical interventions — big and small, human, mechanical and pharmaceutical — that were maintaining the 64-year-old retired waitress on the threshold of life, while she fought to heal her diseased lungs.

And she was just one of nearly 6,000 critically ill patients still in French intensive care units this week as the country embarked on the perilous process of gingerly easing out of its latest lockdown — too prematurely for some frontline workers in hospitals.

French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to reopen elementary schools on Monday and allow people to move about more freely again in May — even though ICU numbers have remained stubbornly higher than at any point since the pandemic's catastrophic first surge — marks a shift away from prioritizing hospitals that is taking place in multiple European capitals.

In France, Greece and elsewhere, the cursor is moving toward other economic, social and educational imperatives. Governments are using ramped-up...