He had been transferred from the hospital Giovanni XXIII on Palm Sunday in desperate conditions. After a month and a half of hospitalization in the University Hospital of Trigoria he will be able to go back to embrace his loved ones. As soon as he returned to consciousness, he believed he had been kidnapped by what he calls today "my angels". A beautiful story of the National Health Service
Rome, 24 May 2020 - Covid-19 was about to kill him but after 50 days Vincenzo, the patient from Bergamo, was discharged this morning from Campus Covid Center in Rome e he returns home aboard an Areu helicopter (Lombardy Regional Emergency and Urgency Agency). He was greeted by the President of the Lazio Region, Nicola Zingaretti, the Regional Health Councilor, Alessio D'Amato, the President of the Campus Bio-Medico University, Felice Barela, the General Director of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, Paolo Sormani and the Director of Anesthesia and Intensive Care of the Bio-Medico Campus, Felice Eugenio Agrò.
"Today I'm here to say hello Vincenzo and to tell him that we are happy that he can return home and to his family after so many days – said the President of the Lazio Region, Nicola Zingaretti - his own story teaches us that strength and tenacity are the best weapons for those who have to fight this disease. But I also want to thank the doctors, nurses and all the healthcare personnel who took care of him and of many other patients admitted to this hospital, fighting together against a sneaky and insidious virus that changed the lives of all of us".
"Vincenzo he is in good health and after winning the biggest challenge, he can go home to the affection of his loved ones. We are happy to have contributed to this result with a view to national solidarity. We have always said this is a battle that we must all win together and I want to thank all the doctors, nurses, technicians and all the operators of the Regional Health Service who treated him” he ofchiarato the Assessor D'Amato.
Vincenzo he went from a coma to being able to tell firsthand his dramatic experience with a happy ending against the virus: “I felt bad in Bergamo, then I don't remember anything, until I was awakened here by one of my angels – he says sitting in a wheelchair next to two nurses from the Campus Covid Center - I couldn't do anything, now I feel completely reborn. I woke up on April 20th. They had given me up for dead, because they told me I had a few days to live, but now I feel very well, thanks to my angels who have been really great".
Airlifted from Bergamo, where he was hospitalized Giovanni XXIII, in Rome on the evening of April 5, on Palm Sunday, at the Covid center of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, Vincenzo spent more than a month and a half inside the health facility reserved for covid-19 patients and completely isolated from the Polyclinic, surrounded by the care of doctors and the entire staff of nurses, physiotherapists, speech therapists and technicians exclusively dedicated to fighting the virus . An isolation in which, to achieve the improvements obtained day after day, the human support of all the operators present was fundamental.
Vincenzo he calls them “his angels,” but that wasn't always the case. Falling asleep in Bergamo, when he returned to consciousness thanks to the treatments administered in intensive care at the Campus Covid Center, Vincenzo he saw strangers completely dressed up and thought he had been kidnapped. Before being told what had happened to him, he imagined the escape and tried to offer a sum of money for his release to those he thought were his captors but who he later recognized as his angels.
"Every discharge from the Campus Covid Center, especially if starting from truly critical conditions, is a reason for satisfaction and hope for all of us. In these months of emergency, the University and its Polyclinic have given their best to respond to the social need to intervene on the front of scientific research, health care for people affected by Covid-19 or in any case in need of treatment, and in the remodeling of academic teaching and advanced training - highlights the President ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Felice Barela.
"When we welcomed from Lombardy Vincenzo, we had opened the Covid Center a few days ago, isolated from the Polyclinic and with dedicated staff, converting the Emergency Department close to its inauguration into a facility for high and medium intensity treatments against the new coronavirus - underlines the General Director of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, Paolo Sormani -. The choice made to separate the flows has allowed us to be able to assist people like Vincenzo at the Covid Center, while continuing to guarantee diagnosis and treatment for all those people suffering from pathologies that had nothing to do with the new virus".
"Today is Ascension Sunday and we are really pleased to deliver Vincenzo to a life back to normal. It has been weeks of intensive care in which, even in the most critical moments, the hope of healing him has never failed. The spirit with which all professionals and operators engaged by their own choice in the Campus Covid Center have faced the challenge of the virus in alliance with patients and their families is a precious example of the value of our national heritage: the NHS" has ofchiarato Felice Eugenio Agrò, Director of Anesthesia and Resuscitation of the Bio-Medico Campus.
"I hope to finish this journey soon because honestly I haven't seen my family for almost three and a half months - he concluded Vincenzo - I am convinced that the National Health Service works well and I want to thank Professor Agrò and all the other operators of the Campus Covid Center for this because I did not think I could be here to tell my story".
Adesso Vincenzo he can speak, breathes independently, is able to eat, and is in good general health. In the coming months she will work with physiotherapists to recover the functions of the motor part in the best possible way in order to soon return to a normal life next to her loved ones.
