Necker Hospital — Local services in Paris

Sickening place. DO NOT GO HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE. Insidious place that will let you suffer in the waiting room and NOT TAKE CARE OF YOU. Extremely important psa for any one traveling or thinking about traveling to Paris, France. My boyfriend Jess and I were walking on the streets of Paris close to the Eiffel tower when I felt a tingling sensation in my face and quickly lost consciousness. Jess called 911 and upon arrival an ambulance and police were there. The paramedics brought me inside the ambulance only to express they could not do anything for me because they were not “doctors”. Jess begging them to do anything and they wouldn’t. I have an underlying health issue where I pass out sometimes and I immediately at least need an IV in me to get me to stabilize. Terribly weak, unable to talk, and keep my eyes open in the ambulance. The police outside began to ask my boyfriend if I had taken any drugs. The first time he said no and they continued to ask multiple times and then searched our backpack without asking. The paramedics drove me to Neckar hospital where they left me in the waiting room. Still barely conscious and losing oxygen to my brain for an hour at this point my boyfriend screamed out for help that I might die to only have multiple nurses walk past us and come back 5 minutes later to just check my pulse. After hours in the waiting room, going in and out, my boyfriend pumped me with water and food to keep me awake. After 4 hours and slowly bringing me back to somewhat a stable level we walked out and left without seeing any medical attention. A very traumatic and insidious experience to say the least. As an American I’ve always been envious of Europe’s “free health care system”. However it is very clear after this experience that free here means extremely dangerous, unsafe and is a terrifying, failed system. In the us this happened to me and paramedics put an IV in me before putting me in the ambulance and brought me back within minutes. My abulence ride in the US was 3,800 dollars but I rather pay that then possibly lose my life. Since this we’ve done some research of other hospitals in Paris to find they are the same and there are a lot worse. The reviews are truly horrifying. I wanted to share this in hopes of saving someone else from going through a very traumatic experience. If you have any underlying health condition I would highly recommend not coming here or making sure you have everything you need in the event you do need help because you will most likely need to help yourself. I know so many people who travel here every year so I truly just want to share and create awareness ♥️stay safe and...

Visiting the children's emergency department in Paris was a shocking experience. I encountered filth, a lack of ventilation, and complete organizational chaos. I arrived with my sick child in the evening, and we were forced to wait until 6:00 AM. Patients were divided into two priority groups: red and blue folders. While it’s understandable that red cases are prioritized, once only blue cases were left, we were still seen last despite many others arriving after us.

I felt discriminated against, perhaps because I am not French. It seemed no one wanted to help us. Or maybe the problem was the language barrier? The nurses spoke perfect English, but the doctors did not. My son had a fever of nearly 40°C for four days, along with a runny nose, sore throat, and cough. Paracetamol was no longer effective in reducing the fever. After the examination, I was told that fever isn’t a problem, even at 41°C, unless lips turn blue. We were advised to continue giving paracetamol "even if it doesn’t help, because it’s meant to improve comfort." If the fever doesn’t drop within two days, we were told to return.

Some tests were done, and I was told they were negative, but I didn’t receive any results or information about what the tests were for. At the end of the visit, I didn’t receive any document confirming our visit, any recommendations, or information about the tests performed and who conducted them. Is this standard practice in France?

In the waiting room, I saw sick children and alarming filth—on the floor, on the children’s tables, and dirty toys children were playing with. Have they forgotten the world post-COVID? The situation there is a breeding ground for dirt. Additionally, the toilets at the train station in Paris are cleaner than those in the children’s emergency department.

The examinations were slow and inefficient. No one seemed to be in a hurry. This entire ordeal left me genuinely shocked and saddened. Such conditions in a children’s hospital are unacceptable, and it’s alarming that basic hygiene and organizational standards are lacking in...

Worst hospital experience ever. Really increased the risk of delivering our son, unnecessarily.

For weeks mid wives kept threatening there is a risk and we have to induce labor while all the data show that the infant and the mother are healthy. My wife was constantly stressed. When we ask what risk is there, mid wife just says “death of a baby”. Who uses this word in a hospital when there is no real risk?

When my wife did start having a contraction, we went to the emergency service. They made us wait for 7 hours stating they are short staffed. There were actually quite a few staffs but they were checking their phones or chatting. We were disheartened but no one showed an interest, no one came and ask if we were doing ok. I repeat, it was an “emergency service”.

After the seventh hour I asked when can we be taken care of. They said “we can’t, not enough bed, not enough staffs today. We will have to put you in another hospital”. Well what were they going to do if I hadn’t asked? Left us there unattended for another seven hours?

They slowly started looking for other hospitals. Many were also full but finally there was a nice one available just outside Paris. Necker people said “ambulance will be here in 30 minutes”. Of course it took 90 minutes until we finally got to leave this horrible stupid hospital.

Thanks to the nice second hospital, the baby was born in 12 hours after we had moved there, safe and sound.

Maybe we just had a sequence of bad staffs at Necker. But for the entire time we commuted there and visited at the day of delivery, unfortunately we hardly met anyone there that cares or even shows a remote interest...