A bilingual guide is aiming to help English speakers get the right help during medical emergencies in France.
The guide, titled “En cas d’urgence médicale / When you have a medical emergency”, was the brainchild of the emergency services SAMU 16 and the Hospital of Angoulême in Charente.
After learning of the guide, the EuroMayenne Association in Mayenne decided to bring it to its department and has launched it with partners SAMU 53, the Laval Hospital Centre, Mayenne Medical Association and Mayenne Departmental Council.
“We happened to see the guide on social media and we thought it would be a good idea to distribute it in the Mayenne department,” EuroMayenne co-president Nicole Devel-Laigle told The Connexion.
EuroMayenne was set up in 1991 to help newcomers to Mayenne better integrate. Today, it hosts linguistic and cultural exchanges and has both native English and French members.
The guide aims to “quickly provide key phrases to facilitate communication between English speakers and healthcare professionals in medical emergencies,” said the association.
It will help English speakers describe their symptoms more accurately, and will help healthcare professionals provide faster and more effective treatment.
The guide includes key phrases in English and their French equivalent, preceded by a number. If the caller cannot say the phrase in French, they can simply give the number, and the emergency services, with their own copy of the guide, will understand what the emergency is.
The guide is split into different health issues, for example heart, bleeding, temperature, fall and pregnancy.
An example of a heart issue could be:
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5 - Il y a une douleur dans le bras gauche - There is a pain in the left arm
While an example of a ‘pregnancy’ phrase is:
50 - Elle a perdu les eaux - Her waters have broken
Instead of saying the entire phrase in French, a caller could simply give the number five or the number 50 and the emergency services will understand the issue.
Ms Devel-Laigle hopes more departments will start using the guide, which can be given to emergency services so they recognise the numbers.
“It is important for every Anglophone speaker to be able to express their needs and their symptoms,” she said.
You can download the guide here or by scanning the following QR code:
