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Paolo, a doctor from Palermo, tells a tough story and warns us all: “Respect the rules, something like this can happen to you too”
In these days when the news about Covid reigns, it is not uncommon to find thoughts and reflections that leave their mark and that make us understand how complex it is to manage, not only health aspects, but also human relationships during this pandemic. .
On Facebook, among others, a doctor from Palermo who works in a Covid ward of a hospital in Emilia Romagna wrote his.
«A few weeks ago – writes Paolo – I found myself writing on Instagram that it is not (only) the covid (per se) that kills; and that even before killing, destroys all kinds of humanity and human interaction. In and out of the hospital, positive or negative.
At this point, the doctor realizes that he will tell a strong story but one that will probably help to understand how things are in the room.
«My apartment has become a Covid department for a month. The covid room does not mean that people are hospitalized just for the covid; It means that there are hospitalized people who need to be hospitalized and that they have covid, which is not necessarily the cause for which they are admitted. Of course, many are hospitalized for worsening symptoms given by this nasty virus. But many others are hospitalized for other reasons such as cholecystitis, diabetic heart failure, urinary tract infection, and trauma. And having the covid must necessarily be in the right areas.
«Among these people – he continues – came last weekend a woman in her 40s. Oncology wine. Unfortunately, a terminal woman, but terminal in the sense that she may be very close to it. In oncology they rightly allow, with due precautions, to live this phase of life and hospitalization with the affection of family members, which is really the most important thing to give to these patients, but also to the family members themselves.
Among the precautions, there are also buffers that are repeated every so often just to identify any infection in time and break the chains of spread.
This lady tested positive a few days ago. It happens, it happens in all departments.
So, despite not having symptoms inherent to covid, she is, in her terminal state, being transferred to our room, where, of course, relatives are not admitted even remotely. Obviously, his relatives were placed at home in preventive quarantine. And here the adventure begins.
The husband calls asking if it was possible in some way to make a video call since his wife has little left to greet her, to have her at least visually close for a few minutes. And we, the doctors, the nurses, cannot and do not want to say no. They had provided us with smartphones in the first wave. But smartphones that don’t use them need updates. You need to log in to perform the updates, but after months neither the doctors nor the tech support seem to know what the credentials are.
Meanwhile rightly the husband calls again, his wife is 40 years old and soon she may no longer be with us, at least seeing her is his wish.
And how can you say no? With what humanity? But you certainly can’t show them yourself. Then, faced with the impossibility of using those smartphones, a doctor makes his phone available (strictly sealed and closed), another makes his presence available to hold the phone in front of the lady who can not alone, and tries to Do what you can.
And here is the hit.
Video call startsWe explained that we will show his unreceptive wife a bit that she is exactly how they left her in oncology. The husband, who will not take more than a few years of age from us, calls someone in front of the screen.
3 children from 10 to 3 years old arrive. One of the three still has a pacifier. They pile up in front of the screen with their little heads, they make a little of one, because that screen is the only window to what is most important in their world: their mother.
They repeat insistently how much they love her, beg her to open her eyes a little, tell her about the online lessons, the games, how much she misses her and the fact that they are waiting for her at home or “at least in the other hospital where we could see you. ” .
The voices range from happy and conversational to sad, broken, sad. “Mom we love you” becomes “Mom we want you close, we miss you, please get well.” And they do not talk about being cured of cancer, but more immediately of the covid, because that swab that turns negative could be the key to seeing her again and hugging her again.
Could. Because sometimes time is infamous, and we count the days waiting for the tampon to turn negative before something worse happens. That they can touch, kiss, hug, that they can conclude this painful chapter, staying close and without fighting for an hour in front of a smartphone, saying anything to feel close to their mother.
Time passes and no one can stand it, after a while you have to leave, because the evil that this scene causes is devastating, it takes your breath away and blurs your eyes more than two masks. We take turns holding a smartphone and bringing a ray of humanity and comfort to one. family already torn by pain that there has been and will be ».
At this point, the doctor’s story becomes a reflection. An invitation to respect others and to respect ourselves, from the use of the mask to other good practices. Covid divides us but we must be responsible for the future.
“I never want them to experience what we are experiencing as doctors, as relatives, as patients – concludes the doctor -. This is the most devastating of things that have happened these days, but only today would I have at least a couple of other difficult stories to tell.
I wish you and I ask you instead to have respect for those who are going through a situation tragically less fortunate than you. Whether it’s from the covid itself or something else, the covid only makes it more tragic. Because that’s the problem. Covid is not only a problem in itself, it brings with it a ruin of the reality that surrounds us, terrifying. Either in the collapse of structures or in the destruction of human relationships, especially those that have been made fragile by disease (in a broad sense).
When you complain about not being able to walk to the sea, when you complain that you cannot have a snack, when you go shopping in the evenings after whole afternoons just to “escape” the rules dictated by those who govern us, remember this girl 40 years old, who each of us could be linked by a direct thread of responsibility.
Because you never know who you may have by your side and the risk to which you are exposed or exposed given the high number of asymptomatic people. Stop being capricious and grown children. Rules are made out of necessity, even when they are not the best or the most appreciated.
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