Giovanni, an accountant and his difficult New Year’s Eve in the Covid department of Spallanzani

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“Happy New Year. A used one would also suffice, but better adapted.” Giovanni Di Leo, a 63-year-old accountant, hospitalized in Spallanzani in Rome since 23 November, greets the New Year in this way, with a cartoon of Snoopy and a video where, with drink in hand, he toasts the new year with his roommate. Even less serious Covid patients admitted to the hospital were able to toast the new year. In the hope that their tough confrontation with the new coronavirus will end soon and can quickly return to the family.

Locked in a room with double entry doors

From the room with the glass window and double doors, they greeted the staff on duty raising their glasses and hoping for a better 2021. “It takes little,” says Giovanni Di Leo, who is now in an acute care room but has had to cope with intensive care. “I’ve always been a fatalist – he tells on the phone – and I still try to look at life with serenity and optimism”

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Covid comes from RSA

In the life of the Di Leo family, Covid came from an RSA, where mother Leila was hospitalized. “After the difficult first wave of Covid, during which we were never allowed in to protect patients, my mother felt abandoned. When we saw that with the second wave everything closed again – says Giovanni Di Leo – we made a long family consultation and we organized to bring her home ».

Returning to the quarantined family without a tampon

Mom comes home on November 4, without a tampon. From the RSA they only suggest a quarantine. After several adventures with caregivers who first say they are available and then leave, we reached November 4: “It’s been two weeks that, unfortunately, destiny, destiny, has turned my life upside down,” says Giovanni. “I can bring my mother home with all the doubts related to her condition and the change in her family life. I had only seen her four times since January, and although not entirely lucid, she felt abandoned by us. It was very difficult to make an 86-year-old person in those conditions understand what had happened outside and why we couldn’t see each other more often.

The positive family in a few days

The lady does not present symptoms, but in the RSA on the day of discharge there are four cases of Covid. After a few days the coughing and positivity appears for Mrs. Leila. Everyone at Di Leo’s house rubs each other, but it’s too early to tell the truth: the answer is totally negative. Meanwhile, in the RSA there are quickly 35 positives out of 80. And with Mrs. Leila also Giovanni, his wife and two of the three children are positive. Like Giovanni’s caretaker and brother, who had gone to greet the mother he hadn’t been able to see at the RSA. All asymptomatic, except Giovanni.