“Code red, code red, a balcony of the Vela Celeste has collapsed, there are many injured children!”.
With these yell out excited, two men were carrying two little girls in their arms. Thus begins the heartbreaking story of Federica, nurse at the pediatric emergency room Santobono of Napoli, during the tragic night of the Scampia collapse.
His words, collected by the association “Nobody Touches Hippocrates“, they take us into the hell experienced at that moment.
“Never in five years of emergency room care have I felt so lost and helpless,” Federica confides. “Everything was surreal, like a nightmare.”
The little girls, covered in dust and blood, with fear in their eyes, arrived one after the other.
“We welcomed them like an avalanche”, recalls the nurse. “Doctors and nurses flocked to the little patients, trying to stabilize them as quickly as possible.”
But the situation was desperate. Many of the children They were in very serious conditions. And there was another anguish: the parents. Often, the men who carried the children did not even know who their relatives were. “Dad, come with me, tell me what their names are,” Federica asked one of them. But the answer was always the same: “I'm not the father, I found them under the rubble.”
Federica starts, looks around and notices that her colleagues were all busy with the red codes: “another car arrives, honking like the first one: I run out, a gentleman helps me pull M. out, her femur was completely detached from her pelvis, a fragment was almost exposed, we carry her inside together.
“'Get a stretcher'”, says the nurse, “I put her on top and before I could even turn around, there they come, one after the other, seven terrified, dirty, wet, bloody little girls.”
Nurse Federica's story is touching and demonstrates how courageously and professionally the medical staff at the Neapolitan pediatric emergency room faced the emergency that tragic night.
“I remember the eyes of that patanella (little pope) Nunzia – Federica continues – who shook my hand and said 'don't worry, I'm fine, where is my sister?'.
Nunzia my love, – admits the nurse – you pierced my heart. I remember the tears on my colleagues' faces, the night spent updating the news page, the research we did together on the sails of Scampia and I can't get these thoughts out of my head”.
Federica's story is a cry of pain and a tribute to the courage of all the health workers who did their utmost to save those little lives. It is a warning not to forget this tragedy and to work to prevent similar disasters from happening again.
Article published on 25 July 2024 - 17:05
