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Undergoing 6-hour surgery, the 74-year-old defeated both the new coronavirus and cancer
AREZZO – She had been admitted to the hospital in Arezzo because she was infected with COVID-19. That’s right, the doctors discovered that she had two tumors, while she was unaware of the disease that haunted her. A bowel cancer and a uterine cancer.
“The patient had been hospitalized in the Covid hospitalization for infectious diseases – explains Marco De Prizio, Director of Surgery of San Donato. – Colleagues soon realized that he had ailments that could have nothing to do with Covid. Then they ordered investigations that made it possible to detect an important abdominal tumor that caused compression in the intestine ”.
Hence the inevitable decision taken collegially by surgeons, anesthetists and infectious disease doctors: operating.
“The surgery was complex but it turned out to be even more difficult than we thought – continues De Prizio -. In the operating room we discovered that there were two tumors: in the intestine and in the uterus. The operation continued. for 6 mineral, performed by a team of 3 surgeons with the collaboration of anesthetists and operating room personnel. We remove a long section of intestine, part of the liver, a piece of the stomach, uterus and ovaries. But the patient passed the operation. We did it”.
A difficult intervention in normal times but that Covid has made extremely complicated. Surgeons worked with the use three pairs of gloves, two pairs of masks, glasses, gown.
With constant double attention: “we have focused on the intervention but also on all the connections with Covid. And this is the case in all interventions in patients of this type. The anesthetist reminds us that the patient has breathing difficulties, we must be even more careful because a Covid patient bleeds more and has greater risks. As if all this were not enough, our hand and arm movements slow down due to all the protections we wear, breathing is more difficult due to the masks, the glasses fog up, we constantly sweat ”.
Even small procedures are slower: “if you need an instrument that is not present in the room, we must make it arrive in special protective packaging. Before, 1 minute was enough, now you need at least five”.
The 74-year-old patient overcame the surgery well and is on Covid resuscitation. In the coming days she will return to infectious diseases where she will be followed jointly by a team of surgeons and infectious diseases.
“In this hospital – concludes De Prizio – we are linked by a logic of collaboration that allows us to give people the best response.”
At age 74, this patient will have defeated Covid and two tumors. And perhaps she is one of the few people who will be able to find a silver lining in the infection that brought her to the hospital.
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