In the exhausting daily life of a caregiver: “We are the arms, the eyes and the legs of the patients”

In the corridors, a woman, small and slender, twirls from one room to another. Despite her forty-two kilos, Alexandra Mari lifts sick bodies with delicacy and unsuspected strength. For ten hours, the 28-year-old nurse’s aide, from this rare complex prolonged care unit in Sainte-Périne (16th century), an establishment of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), accepted that we follow her in her daily life, on the occasion of the International Day of this shadow profession, little known and little valued.