2023-11-05 23:59:18
Karen, Priscilla, Sarah are still in shock, traumatized by an experience which should have been above all a beautiful human and supportive adventure. This Sunday, these young women have only one word left on their lips: “horror”. They had all come to participate in the “Rose Trip trek”, organized in the Moroccan desert from October 26 by the Désertours company. Objective: raise awareness about the fight against breast cancer.
But what was supposed to be a great team competition, for humanitarian purposes and in a feminist atmosphere, turned into a nightmare. Less than 24 hours after the start of the desert walking competition, dozens of women fell ill, presenting symptoms similar to gastroenteritis. The situation quickly took on unprecedented proportions, these young women testify to Le Parisien.
For Sarah, the adventure ends on the 3rd day of competition. “From the first km of the trek, I no longer have any strength. I’m feeling terribly nauseous, and I feel like I’m going to fail my team. I was very cold even though we were in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately for me, the doctor was already busy, we didn’t see anyone coming,” remembers the self-employed woman from Var. “We leave again but I am literally carried by my teammates because I am so weak. I make constant stops in the dunes to relieve myself, like other girls we meet on the road. The goal was to return to the camp,” she breathes.
The situation turns into chaos
“I collapse in front of the medical tent in an apocalyptic atmosphere. The girls around me are literally on top of each other. Girls in distress are left destitute on mattresses outside,” says the woman who then comes down with a high fever. Outside this medical tent, a sort of holy grail for all sick competitors, there is chaos. “The girls were dropping like flies, fecal matter along their thighs,” confirm our three witnesses, who even found one of the participants unconscious in the base camp, near the toilets.
Same scenario for Priscilla, a childcare worker from Yvelines who vomited during her final trek. “My legs no longer carried me. I was dropped off in a tent. I didn’t feel anything anymore. I was very scared,” she says, still visibly feeling distressed. “I woke up perfused on the ground with a simple survival blanket. The doctor brought me a trash bag so I could do it… but I couldn’t do it. I was afraid of bathing in my excrement,” continues the mother of a 16-year-old.
Faced with this unprecedented situation, local medical staff are doing their best but are completely overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis. “My neighbor asked for a diaper, there was none,” recalls Priscilla, who was prescribed sessions with a psychologist to exorcise those 48 hours in hell, in addition to bacteriological tests carried out on her return to France without having been formally hospitalized.
A participant in distress, supported, with a survival blanket. DR/ The Parisian
“We almost wonder if we will survive”
Sarah only returned to France early Saturday morning. Her condition was so alarming that she was exfiltrated to a Moroccan hospital by the organization like more than 20 extreme hikers. She stayed there for a total of three days. “We all had the feeling of being on a war scene. We stepped over unconscious girls to try to go to the toilet,” confides the mother. “There was a moment, I felt like I was leaving… In my head I was trying to scream. We almost wonder if we are going to survive,” says Sarah, in remission from cancer, in the beginning of sobs.
Return by medical flight, for one of the participants
“The Red Cross was overwhelmed. I offered my help to the organizers who turned me away, assures Karen, a professional nurse, who today coordinates the angry participants wishing to file a complaint against the tour operator Désertours. There was a feeling of general panic,” assures the 28-year-old young woman. In total, 325 participants were sick, 24 hospitalized in the Cherifian kingdom and 15 in France out of the 816 participants, according to the census of the future association currently being formed. Désertours claims that 200 participants were affected by this “epidemic” and 18 were hospitalized, according to a report from Mutuaide insurance.
The tour operator assures that it did not show casualness
On the Désertours side, we claim to have taken stock of the incident, acknowledging its “unprecedented and chaotic” nature, and we apologize to the participants in a press release also sent to the press. ” We are all heart with you. Our entire team has been and remains tirelessly mobilized to collaborate with the medical teams, Mutuaide (Editor’s note, the event’s insurer), the health authorities, the consulate,” affirms the company. “While it is difficult to respond in real time, individually, to all the requests we receive, rest assured that this is in no way casual on our part and that your safety is always our priority,” adds this text. The organizer contacted by Le Parisien also underlined that many participants had “been able to live the adventure to the end”.
The tour operator also assures that “the treatment, although very difficult on the ground in the desert, made it possible to limit the number of hospitalized patients and that Mutuaide confirmed that the triage (…) and the evacuation plan made it possible to isolate the most serious cases and hospitalize them urgently.” On the medical aspect, Désertours sticks to a single version: “The symptoms of acute gastroenteritis are common in Morocco but were of exceptional virulence and magnitude, the viral origin of which was confirmed according to Mutuaide.” But in the unanimous opinion of our witnesses, the hygienic conditions of the camp were rather the origin of the epidemic.
The drainage pit.
“The kitchens and toilets were close, separated by only a few meters. The evacuation of all the toilets was a hole in the ground which went into a pit which had been dug just behind the last tents of the camp”, explain our witnesses, still stunned, who also highlight the presence of flies in large numbers . In this context, the “trekkers” do not take offense towards the organizers, whom they accuse of being responsible for this immense mess with humanitarian aims.
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