“Covid, the only salvation was the cell phone …”

Viterbo – The story of Francesca Ripanelli hospitalized in Belcolle for 14 days: the discovery of the disease, the decisions made and the way to the hospital

by Daniele Camilli

Viterbo – “The only salvation was the mobile phone.” Francesca Ripanelli, Nepi, married, 52 years and 14 days of anti-Covid therapy at Belcolle de Viterbo. She is an INES worker. It tells what happened, the process and the therapy. The path he took. Isolation and the cell phone as the only form of communication with the outside world. How the virus took away and solidarity, from relatives, from Nepi and from the people who know her. Francesca Ripanelli is already out of the hospital. She is staying in an apartment that is not her own home, where only her husband enters. You are waiting for the tampon to definitely refuse.

Viterbo – Francesca Ripanelli

The virus and the context. “In August my father, at 89, suddenly felt ill – says Ripanelli – and I moved into his house. I also have three sisters and a husband who works in the Civita Castellana emergency room. I have no children. My sisters are married, my brother is not and he still lives with my father. The first to have a fever was my sister on October 27. He asked for a swab but the answer was to wait a bit because it could have been a simple fever. So much so that after three days it had already passed. On October 31 I go to bed with my father. I wake up and I also have 37 and a half years of fever. I thought I got it from my sister. And even I after 3 days passed. Once it happened to me, the fever hit my father. And that’s when they all got the flea in their ears, but at first we didn’t do anything ”.

Coronavirus – Viterbo – The Drive in test point in Riello

The decision to rub. “A few days after my father had a fever – continues Ripanelli – I too woke up with a severe sore throat. But he still wasn’t thinking about the tampon. I usually have a very high fever every year, with plaques in my throat. Fever that lasts 20 to 25 days. Also this time the fever came with the plates. The throat was full. At that point I started taking the antibiotic, but the fever did not go away. So my husband decided to switch to cortisone first and then to Rocefin. Meanwhile, my husband had also brought me an oxygen tank that I started using right away. But despite this, the fever still did not subside. And it was at that moment, after a few days of fever, that we decided to get a swab ”. How? “By calling – Ripanelli responds – to a clinic that makes swabs at home. In that case, the Paideia. Once the swab was done, my father, brother, and I tested positive for Covid. Not my sisters, not my husband. From that moment the world fell on us. My husband called 118 and from that moment the whole process began ”.

Viterbo – Hospital Belcolle

Admission to the Belcolle. “The ambulance – Francesca Ripanelli continues her story – picked me up at home and took me to the Belcolle emergency room in Viterbo. Luckily I had my cell phone with me. Once I arrived at the emergency room, the person who welcomed me took all the blood samples and it was there that I discovered that what my husband had done for me, the choice of medications. in fact, the therapy was the right thing to do. So much so that at the Belcolle they continued with the same medications, first doing the CT scan and connecting me to the oxygen tank. They told me I had Covid once they brought me to the room. In the Covid 4 of medicine, floor 9, group C. They took me out of the emergency with the ambulance and with the ambulance they took me to block C of the hospital. The diagnosis was bilateral Covid 19 pneumonia. He had no previous pathologies, apart from the thyroid gland. However, I have found that being even slightly overweight poses a great danger to those with Covid. I am 7 kilos more and so they were considering putting me in intensive care. What then did not happen ”.

Coronavirus – Belcolle Nurse

Francesca Ripanelli spent 14 days in the hospital. Everything in the Belcolle de Viterbo. before going back to Nepi, in another house and waiting for everything to be definitively finished, that is to say that the tampon is negative once and for all. “My sister and my father – continues Ripanelli – immediately became negative and both developed antibodies. My brother was the last to be negative. The one who was massacred is me, who came from a period of very low immune defenses. Thyroid thing. Because since the confinement we have never left home, except to go shopping ”.

Coronavirus emergency

Living in the hospital. “At the Belcolle, along with the extraordinary friendliness of the staff – Ripanelli’s story continues – the only salvation was the mobile phone. There were two of us in the room, me and a 90-year-old woman who kept in touch with her daughter through a tablet. My typical day was looking at the bedroom wall and the nearby window from which I could see the 118 helicopter runway. I just stared into space. I couldn’t see anyone. My relatives left the packages at the entrance of the room and the nurse took them inside. The only way to stay in touch was the cell phone, the only salvation. With my cell phone I could listen to the members of my family, their voices. See their faces, feel them close, and never lose hope. We speak very little with the neighbor in my room. The cell phone was my salvation. Without her I would have been completely isolated and hospitalization would have been very difficult, as for anyone else ”.

The time of thanks. The first, at the Belcolle hospital in Viterbo. “Today my thanks and my love – says Francesca Ripanelli – goes to the Belcolle hospital and to all the professionals in the Covid 4 medical department. In this department I have found professionalism, competence and above all love for work and people. Thank you very much because you helped me get up and face the long days. They never made me feel lonely and they were always ready with the right words. There was always a smile in his eyes. “

The second thanks goes to Nepi’s doctor, a pediatrician, like those of yesteryear, who cared about patients and basically entire countries. Whatever happens, the pediatricians of the countries were always present. Even in the lives of his clients and fellow townspeople. to help them and, above all, when the time comes, to bring them a word of comfort.

“I wanted to thank Dr. Alessandro Ruffi – emphasizes Ripanelli -, a pediatrician from Nepi. There wasn’t a day that he didn’t call me twice to find out how I was doing. A help that was also psychological. Basic”.

Finally, the third thank you, not least. To the city of Nepi. “There was great solidarity from all of Nepi – Francesca Ripanelli concluded -. In these days of isolation, many have brought me croissants, cappuccinos, vegetables, fruits. An experience, this one from Covid, that united us a lot. As a family and as a community ”.

Daniele Camilli

December 9, 2020