The guardian angels of Paris | TF1 | Reportages

They watch over us 24 hours upon 24. Always on duty. Doctors, volunteers, they have chosen to work in the emergency rooms. They are the guardian angels of Paris. The switchboard for 15 and 18 light up unceasingly – more than 10,000 calls a day. Mostly accidents, but also malaises and nervous depressions. In February 2004, a single person – a depressed woman – called number 18 more than 400 times to try to find solace. The emergency personnel are not there for that. Their vocation is to treat victims. The emergency firemen service and the SAMU (French emergency and ambulance service), created in the seventies, criss-cross through-out the city in an almost military way. Their goal: to be able to intervene in less than ten minutes after the emergency call. Today there are 150 doctors, men and women, scattered through-out the fire houses and the hospitals. These daily rescuers make more than 20,000 interventions a year. Our documentary shows the day to day life of these doctors unlike the others who have chosen emergencies and proximity. Medical treatment which also reflects the ills from which our society suffers and which they are the first to treat. Always at the service of the population.