Past participle "rendu" being used as an adjective, but not directly applying to a noun nor using a copula? ("rendue à" meaning "when I went to")

Question

I'm having trouble with the bolded sentence.
_{(It came from a youtube video with non-auto-generated subtitles. The unbolded sentences are there to give context).}

La menace, c'était vraiment de contracter le virus, surtout près de ma date d'accouchement. Donc j'avais peur de tester positive rendue à l'hôpital. Puis là, j'entendais des histoires d'horreur de : tu vas être séparée de ton bébé ou tu vas être séparée de ton conjoint.

DeepL translates the bolded sentence with:

So I was afraid to test positive when I went to the hospital.

Looking at this grammar webpage about the past participle, I see that the past participle can be used as an adjective. Here are two ways, shown on that webpage, that the past participle can be used as an adjective:

• Sometimes the past participle is applied to a noun; for example: "Il y a une voiture arrêtée au carrefour.". This seems to be a straightforward use of the past partciple.
• Sometimes the past participle is linked to a noun, through a copula verb; for example: "Les enfants sont assis dans le salon"

However, with the bolded sentence, "rendue à l'hôpital" doesn't seem to follow either pattern. I'm unsure what it is applying to (is it applying to "Je"?).

If I translate the sentence literally and directly into English, word-for-word, I observe that the translation is ungrammatical, and thus the French sentence uses a structure that clearly doesn't exist in English: "So, I was afraid to test positive went to the hospital". (I haven't seen this structure before, so I'd like to learn more about it.)

Questions:

1. My best guess is that this sentence might be an ellipses of "Donc, j'avais peur de tester positive quand je suis rendue à l'hôpital". Is this correct? (And if so, can you give other example sentences with past participles being used as adjectives, but where they don't seem straightforwardly linked to a noun, nor linked to a noun by using a copula?) If not, can you explain the structure of what "rendue" is applying to, and why it means "when I went"?
2. Would the following sentence have the same meaning, or not? "Donc j'avais peur de tester positive, en rendant à l'hôpital". If yes, why might the original sentence have been used instead of the more "common" present participle?

Answer 1

1- In your example part of the sentence is omitted, which is quite possible and correct, you could read it this way:

Donc j'avais peur de tester positive une fois que je serais rendue à l'hôpital.

It is the same type of sentence as in the example you found:

Il y a une voiture arrêtée au carrefour.

in which the relative clause is ommitted (Il y a une voiture (qui est) arrêtée au carrefour).

Être rendu means être arrivé.

2- Se rendre vs être rendu

Se rendre est synonyme d'aller.

• Je me rends à l'hôpital. (→ I go to the hospital).

(some people can see a difference in meaning between se rendre and aller, for more on that you can read the answer to this question: Quelle est la différence entre les verbes « aller » et « se rendre (lieu) » ?

• Je me suis rendue à l'hôpital: (→ I went to the hospital).

So it means aller when the action expresses a movement. When we say je suis rendue (the verb is no longer pronominal) it does not express an action, but a state. Aller cannot be used in this case, être rendu is then synonym of être arrivé.

• Je suis rendue à l'hôpital. (→ I have arrived at the hospital).

I won't say the translation from DeepL is completely wrong when using aller, but it lacks nuances.¹

3- It should be j'avais peur de tester positive, en me rendant à l'hôpital, you can't miss out the me here because it means aller.
And en me rendant à l'hopital (when going to the hospital) is not interchangeable with une fois rendue à l'hopital ("once I am/I was at the hospital").

^{1 "When I went to hospital" vs "once I arrived at the hospital".}

Answer 2

That's indeed an ellipsis but, as far as I'm used to, not of quand je suis because the tense wouldn't work, colliding with other meanings of être rendu. An less ambiguous alternative would be une fois:

J'avais peur de tester positive une fois rendue à l'hopital. (once [arrived] in the hospital).

It's more common to drop rendue and just use une fois:

J'avais peur de tester positive une fois à l'hopital.

Note that quand je serai rendue à l'hôpital seems to become either outdated or a regionalism in France for quand je serai arrivée à l'hôpital. The verb rendre requires a reflexive form in normative French (quand je me serai rendue à l'hôpital) but the meaning is slightly different (see comments).

Tester positive is also a regionalism or an anglicism.

A more common expression in France is être testée positive.

J'avais peur d'être testée positive une fois à l'hôpital.

Answer 3

The meaning of rendue is as in this entry from the TLFI:

A. Arrivé à destination. Le temps de se dire bonjour (...) et nous partons, de manière à être rendus, à 1 heure moins le quart (...) au passage Verdeau (VERLAINE, Corresp., t. 1, 1864, p. 14). Vous n'aviez qu'à prendre par la crête: vous étiez rendu en cinq minutes! (VERCEL, Cap. Conan, 1934, p. 162).

Arrivée à l'hôpital would have the same meaning: "once I got to the hospital."

Answer 4

I think the correct, and simplest, response to this question has been lost by assuming that rendu in this instance concerns travel to or arriving at the hospital. Rendre has several translations into English, but surely the relevant one here is give or render. The translation of Donc j'avais peur de tester positive rendue à l'hôpital is then So I was afraid of a positive test being given at the hospital.