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We are at war with Covid. How many times have we uttered, heard or simply read this expression? Many of them. So many that they even got used to them. And addicted to this saying, perhaps we have begun to look with detachment the battlefields where every day an increasingly unequal fight is consumed: that of man and Covid-19.
The writer has reported on several occasions the Cardarelli Resuscitation pandemic, of the “red” areas, of the 118 stations, of the home of families who have lost their loved ones to the virus, still that expression of “we are at war” has never been more appropriate than today – Tuesday February 22 – in the antistadio di Contrada Selvapiana.
It’s 2 in the afternoon when he gets on board the ambulance the tenth covid patient forced to be transferred to another hospital because Cardarelli is saturated.
The one in progress it’s the worst weeksay the doctors. Then they add crossing their fingers: “Or rather, let’s hope there are no worse ones.” It is because the virus and its variants circulate very easily., hospitalizations increase, even in intensive care. THEThe room of doctor Romeo Flocco he can’t take it anymore: he’s exhausted.
The patient number 10 to be transferred, he is 53 years old. His lungs are fighting, he’s on a respirator, his life is at risk. The helicopter is a few minutes late. There are the firefighters who watch the arrival of the aircraft, it is their task to ensure a safe landing and take-off.
In the early afternoon in the Selvapiana district there is hardly anyone and silence is everywhere. A few minutes after 2 pm, the deafening noise of the Air Force AW-101 opens it..
Its rumble is a punch to the stomach.
The noise of the engine, the wind from the propellers, the Cardarelli ambulance turning on the flashing lights, the firefighters running to secure the area, the landing of the AW-101, the opening of the tailgate, the soldiers (some harnessed) coming down and the meeting with the Cardarelli doctors to agree on the transfer of the patient from one stretcher to another.
Here, the sensations of these minutes reinforce that thought that until a few days ago had almost the taste of a metaphor and that instead is not because “We are really at war against covid and against time “.
The AW-101 passes over our heads about twice, it has to calculate the landing (after all the Cardarelli heliport, theme of every election campaign for years, is not yet in a position to meet these emergencies). When the engines shut down and the propellers stop, the Air Force soldiers pull the stretcher out of the hatch.
Then they hook the patient and move him quickly in the other bed for biocontainment. These are the names that are used for patients suffering from highly contagious diseases.
What happens at this moment is part of the call “Cross network “(remote central for medical rescue operations) which in Molise was activated directly in the “Phase 5” that is, the maximum emergency, skipping the “Phase 4” due to the sudden worsening of infections and therefore the inability of the regional health system to cope with a significant and unprecedented spike in hospitalizations and emergencies.
The Molise patient, 53, is therefore the tenth which is part of the hospitalization system organized with the “Cross Network”. After those transferred to Lazio, Abruzzo, Tuscany, the latter patient will be taken to Cesena.
Here we are. There stretcher crosses the threshold of the back door of the plane. Rescuers finish disinfestation of suits and prepare for takeoff.
Again that noise of the engines that rips the sky of Campobasso and forces you to cover your ears with your hands. The flight commander, before boarding, greets medical personnel 118 who is standing in front of the ambulance waiting for the helicopter to restart.
“Hi guys – he says – good luck.” One of the three rescuers in our ambulance moves, puts his hands to his head, as if to protect himself from crying.
Yes good luck. We all need him, plus Molise’s patient on the way to Cesena and many like him who struggle between life and death.
We? We who are fortunate not to be attached to respirator ‘beep’we could probably do a lot to avoid infections and hospitalizations. It goes without saying.
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