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For Gioconda, that Covid hospital bed, where she has been for more than 40 days, had become a prison. Illness, loneliness, and total lack of contact with loved ones had become too heavy a burden to bear. Then she began to refuse food and medicine, determined to let herself die. An extreme choice to which doctors and health workers responded by moving their bed in front of the window. From there he managed to embrace Manuela and Maura, his two daughters with his eyes. A simple but powerful intervention. Yes, because after seeing the faces of “her little ones”, Gioconda decided to move on and fight to hug them again.
“He refused food and medicine, tore needles – remember Danilo tacconi, director of infectious diseases. Medically she was better, but we couldn’t cure her if she rejected everything. Then we pick up the phone and talk to one of the two daughters. We told him what was happening and suggested that he see his mother through the windows. Our apartment is on the ground floor and therefore the operation was quite simple to carry out. We did it. Now Gioconda has agreed to go back to eating and taking care of herself. “
The story that comes from the infectious diseases department of the San Donato hospital in Arezzo is above all a story of hope and willpower. The 73-year-old has been here for almost two months and is fighting her own battle against Covid. Earlier, she was admitted to intensive care where doctors, due to her fragile health, intubated her for 6 days and then forced her to wear a breathing helmet. Later she was transferred to infectious diseases with pneumonia and sepsis.
“I don’t know how I didn’t cry when I saw mom – he says Manuela, one of the two daughters – She felt ill in early November. He lives on the floor below mine. She had started having flu symptoms and a few days later I found her unconscious in the house. He had vomiting, diarrhea, a high fever, and he didn’t recognize me. Then she was hospitalized. I had spent the three nights before the hospitalization with her and I too had gotten sick. The San Donato doctors have always shown great humanity. A doctor also told us that they followed ours as if she were their mother. But despite this, in these 40 days, we realized that it was getting worse and worse. Five times he risked death and five times my sister Maura and I thought we should organize the funeral. We imagine the mother’s pain, her impatience with the helmet, her feeling of loneliness. Before his admission, one of his frequently asked questions was: Who will take care of me when I am sick? The time had come and we couldn’t be with her. “
Gioconda’s life has never been easy. “She has been a widow for 22 years and my father died after a long and painful illness. My mother has always been strong. She has cared for all of my grandparents, who are also affected by illnesses and ailments. of his in-laws. It has been a point of reference for friends and neighbors. She raised Maura and me with love and is an extraordinary grandmother to her granddaughter. “
His daughters went to what infectious disease doctors and nurses call “hug window” from where, through messages and their presence, they managed to give him comfort.
“I couldn’t go in and talk to mom. We wrote on some sheets that we love her and miss them. I pushed them towards the window pane. In her eyes I saw the pain and fear. It breaks your heart to leave just one. One. person who loves himself when sick and in danger of dying. I know there are no alternatives and I can only thank the doctors for what they have done and continue to do. Not only for the mother but also for us daughters, allowing us to see it even from a window. “
“In these months – remembers Danilo Tacconi – we have really tested them all with our patients. Every day we call family members, we keep them informed, we try to contain their anxiety. When the conditions are right, we organize contacts with smartphones and tablets. The “hug window” is a simple and safe solution that we have implemented in relation to the very particular situation of this patient. We are following the national debate on the possibility of allowing family members access to Covid rooms, but the problems are many. Security but also organizational because it would be necessary to wear all the protective equipment and this is a procedure that must be accompanied by expert personnel ”.
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