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I don’t know what his face is, hooked as he is by a fuchsia hat in his hair and a wide mask on his face. The eyes just open, dark and already tired in the morning. The rest of the body is hidden by a large blue T-shirt, perhaps to move more easily in the comings and goings of the Sacco Hospital First Aid where he practically lives now.
«We are flooded. All October 12 crashed, I remember the day, a Monday. The signs that he could start over were already there. When the clubs reopened in the summer, here we thought: oh no! I never believed that the virus was gone forever, but such a blow was not expected. Instead, that October 12, suddenly, we were assaulted by a hundred ambulances, more men and women with symptoms presented. Since then it has been a major daily emergency.. In the space of two weeks, we have hospitalized more Covid pneumonia than in all of March and April. About fifty a day. In two weeks, the bulletin of the two months ”.
Predictions, Dr. Brambilla? He shakes his head and lowers it. “We are not at the top yet. Compared to the first wave, the virus circulates much more in the territory, at least here. Now we are in 300 beds out of 400, our possibilities almost saturated. And the real problem is that my city, Milan, seems to be unaware of the fire that threatens it».
Milan burns but fills the parks on weekends, walks the streets, goes to work almost like nothing. His most virus-skinned outpost is Sacco Hospital, a far northwestern suburb, a vast complex of care and pain that 40 years ago experienced the first scratches of AIDS and now barely resists the new assault. of a disease that suffocates a city, a nation, Europe and practically the whole world (half a million new infected in 24 hours). The gateway to this stronghold, hit by an unprecedented storm, is the Emergency Room where the doctor in the blue shirt lives and commands. Anna Maria Brambilla, 53, primary of the first line of the Sacco, was born as a sanatorium in 1927 and became, in the year of the 2020 disaster, the anti-Covid bastion of the metropolis that is now the epicenter of the second and aggressive assault.
Bergamo, last spring. Milan now. Surrounding it is a region, Lombardy, which alone accounts for almost half of the “positives” (243,000 out of 500,000) and most of the deaths (18,000 versus 41,000) since Italy ended February 21 under the virus.
Why here, Dr. Brambilla? “I do not know. Perhaps it also has something to do with air quality, the concentration of companies and industries. On the other hand, it all started in Wuhan, one of the most polluted areas in China. However, what saved us six months ago was the total closure. Now we still see too many people around. Too “.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza said that if the curve cannot be turned, health workers will not hold out. How long do you work?
“From 8 to 21, even the holidays are almost the same. Luckily my husband does the same job, we don’t have children, we experience the same emotional burden. However, I share the minister’s alarm. Apart from the fatigue of today that adds to the unwillingness the previous time, in addition to the colleagues who have lost their lives and those who are infected, there is a change in collective attitude that makes everyone’s work more onerous. . We went from being considered heroes, which for God’s sake was an exaggeration, to being lived with hostility, as if we, doctors and nurses, were responsible for what is happening.
There is a long mural in your honor, made by the Baluardo association in Quarto Oggiaro, the Sacco neighborhood, which a week ago was stained, the masks disfigured, your eyes erased. Why, in your opinion?
“It can only be explained by the wind that has risen, already in early summer, to drive away the ghost of the Coronavirus. If I erase you, who is dealing with that disease, I erase the disease itself. Always looking for a culprit, this time it would be us. And it is shocking.
Does it happen to you to cry?
“Once, during a television interview, recently. They broadcast a video showing this hospital with empty corridors and rooms. It was a sensational fake. But how? We have the queue of ambulances, patients in beds waiting for accommodation, others already with the ventilation helmet but still in the corridors. Here, tears came to my eyes because I experienced it as an inhuman lack of respect for those who are struck by a terrible disease, which disrupts the parameters of medicine. You take it, you are asymptomatic, it is not difficult for you to breathe, then suddenly the oxygen saturation falls below 80 and at that point the drama becomes double: the fight with death begins and you are also only having to face it, because nobody may be close to you. because of the contagion, not even at the end, when they bury you. There is something devilish about this virus.
Believe in God?
“Yes, I believe. But I certainly do not think of a scourge sent from heaven. God does not punish. Rather, I see an aggression against the human race, the strong presence of evil against the good of life.”
Wrong. Cardinal Zuppi also mentioned it in an interview in the “Buone Notizie” insert of this newspaper.
“This virus creates enormous confusion, it is transforming our planet into a kind of gigantic Tower of Babel. People who do not believe they exist, people who believe that no one will touch them, people who conjure up plots of international speculators. The only certainty is that nothing will ever be the same again, even when we have defeated it, when we have won this kind of world war. Because it really is a war, and from where I am fighting it can be seen clearly, although many still do not want to see it ».
When will there be, if not peace, at least a truce?
“The number of infections, and also the number of deaths, continues to grow worryingly. In addition, the cold season arrives, the influences, we will still have complicated months ahead. Maybe we could go out around March or April. But only if we do things right and tell the truths that need to be said.
What would you do, what would you say?
“I work in an emergency room where there have been ten deaths in the last twenty days. That is a very high percentage for us. People entered in average conditions, which quickly collapsed there, not even the time to direct them to the different departments. I fear that the containment measures that have just been put in place will not be enough to stop the evil.
It is not easy to stop it.
“I understand the problem of the economy, but the situation is really desperate. People need to know. Milan must know and understand. For the moment, the only real weapon against this virus is to recognize it for what it is: an evil enemy, taking you by surprise, crushing humanitarian defenses. A mortal enemy.
November 9, 2020 (change November 9, 2020 | 07:24)
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