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Italy has just faced the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic. Since mid-August, they have recorded a systematic increase in the daily number of infections, persisting around 1,5 thousand. cases. The last number of cases there was in May. The restrictions are back. Discos have been closed, and masks have been made obligatory in some places. Yet the echoes of the tragic events that unfolded there in the spring have not yet subsided.
- – An infected doctor deals with the disease as well as his patients. Every day it is accompanied by fear – says Dr. Stefano Nava, who first looked after patients with COVID-19, and then contracted the virus himself
- In spring, the health care system in Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region – Italy’s second largest number of coronavirus cases and mortality, was on the brink of capacity
- The doctor is a co-author of the work entitled “Italian victims of the COVID-19 epidemic”, dedicated to health workers who died at the beginning of the pandemic
- Dr. Nava was sick for 31 days, but he still feels the effects of the coronavirus to this day
Dr. Stefano Nava, head of the respiratory and intensive care unit at the Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna, describes his experiences in the spring. He says the coronavirus pandemic has brought medics downstairs. “We have amazing drugs, surgical robots, and suddenly a little virus turns everything upside down. Our life changes, we feel that we are mortal ”.
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“Patients came to me with moderate symptoms, and within a few days their condition worsened dramatically,” recalls Dr. Nava.
As the pandemic raged in Italy in spring, his hospital only looked after coronavirus patients.
On March 24, Dr. Nava also received a positive test result. He remembers his fear, all the more overwhelming because he saw with his own eyes how the disease destroys the lungs, deprives him of his breath, forcing patients to be connected to a respirator.
Every day for 31 days of sickness, he considered that one day he would have to be connected to this device: “Every night before going to bed, I called the doctor on duty asking if he had a spare bed and a respirator in case I needed them?”
Now Nava is greatly relieved that his situation hasn’t deteriorated enough to require intensive care. Although he still sees the effects of the disease, he is aware that fighting the virus has changed his approach to his profession.
In the face of the second wave of infection, Nava knows his own experiences hardened him.
“The coronavirus has changed my way of thinking,” he says. – As a doctor, I am aware that some patients survive and others die, but this disease showed me the true picture of human limitations.
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In the spring, hospital staff in the north of Italy were on the verge of endurance
Italy was one of the first countries to be hit by the pandemic, with an unusually sharp increase in the number of cases and deaths. From the end of February and throughout March, hospitals, especially in the northern part of the country, were overcrowded. On March 9, the 2,5-month lockdown began.
The Emilia-Romagna region, where Nava lives and works, came second in the country for the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and mortality, after Lombardy.
Dr. Nava recalls that the first few days after the outbreak began were terrible. The medical staff was just learning how the virus attacks the body, how it spreads and how to heal those who are infected.
To deal with the wave of patients, most of the wards in Sant’Orsola have been converted into covid wards. Nava and colleagues trained the hospital staff, explaining how to use personal protective equipment, such as masks and helmets, and how to administer oxygen to patients. However, their boundless commitment was not enough. All branches and additional staff who volunteered from all over Italy failed to cope.
– Every day we worked even for 16, sometimes 18 hours – he says. – I remember coming home at 23:00 and starting work the next morning at 7:XNUMX.
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“We were exhausted,” says Roberto Cosentini, the head of the department of emergency medicine at the Of Pope John XXIII in Bergamo. – We were afraid that the health care system would not last. Not only from a professional point of view, but also from a human point of view. For a doctor, the worst thing is when he feels useless.
Those working in the front lines had to make personal choices, and many opted for isolation to protect the family from infection.
“It was mentally draining,” adds Nava.
The symptoms were mild at first – some intestinal trouble and something like the flu. However, experience suggested that the situation could change rapidly. He has seen enough of the lonely struggle of the infected with the disease. More than once he was forced to pass on messages to their loved ones from a hospital cut off from the world.
– I felt the closeness of death – he admits. “I went to sleep and I wasn’t sure if I would be alive in the morning.”
In addition to the doctor, four other people from his department fell ill. From the end of February to April, the infection covered about 2 percent. Sant’Orsola hospital staff.
In June, Nava co-authored an article published in the European Respiratory Journal, entitled “Italian victims of the COVID-19 epidemic.” The text describes in detail the cases of 151 doctors and more than 40 nurses who died in the early stages of the pandemic.
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Nava almost recovered after a few months of being infected. He is still struggling with fatigue, and his lungs are clearly worse than before the infection.
“I get tired faster during strenuous exercise,” he says, adding that he used to run three times a week before. – After my illness, my efficiency dropped by about 20 percent. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, my heart rate increases rapidly and remains elevated for about 30 minutes. This is a symptom that has been reported by other convalescents as well.
Now it’s too early to judge how the coronavirus affects those infected in the long term. Some studies suggest that there may be problems with the respiratory system, the heart, and even ailments of a neurological nature.
Dr. Nava sees his illness as a valuable lesson.
– I learned one important thing. Namely, that medicine is a science based on the principles of probability, he says. – When something unpredictable happens, 1 plus 1 can be 3.
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