a letter from a father to the surgery of the sick
The pain for the illness of a daughter and the hope of a father who puts his life in the hands of health professionals. Luca found himself facing the toughest challenge for a parent: the daughter’s illness. In times of covids and foot hospitals, fear of the diagnosis is compounded by worries about the timing of full hospitals and Oberati doctors. Luca then decided to take pen and paper, the tools of the trade for him, and put pen to paper professionalism, humanity and hospitality who found al surgery department of the Rimini Sick Hospital. The joy for the outcome of the intervention combined with the deep thanks for the empathy given to patients and their families by a department that silently works for excellence: with loveas Luca writes, it is “an uncomfortable term, apparently distant from everyday life and vaguely utopian, but in reality it is from there that beautiful things take shape and then are accomplished”.
Below is the full letter:
When healthcare becomes an excellence
If you are a journalist and a documentary maker the news stories, you encounter pain along the way. Perhaps also for these reasons when pain knocks on your door and it wasn’t you who intercepted it, everything takes on an almost surreal outline, surrounded by a single one of apparent impossibility. A sick daughter, the thyroid to be removed. It is the enemy that hits you from behind, a history as old as the world. In the midst of this unexpected and painful situation, my dearest friend who is called Maurizio and lives in Riccione reassures me immediately and tells me: “Luca, go immediately to Gianluca Garulli, he is the director of surgery at the hospital” “Rimini, you will find yourself very well.” And I and I follow to the letter. I book a visit, we are in December 2021 and he first of all reassures us with great serenity about the positive and decisive outcome of the intervention to which my daughter will have to undergo. In times of Covid and clogged hospitals, from that moment I enter a bubble where the world I want takes shape. Indeed, what we all would like is that when it occurs, hardly anyone has the time and desire to tell. Very serious mistake. The preparatory visits follow one another with an almost maniacal punctuality. Nothing is left to chance, it is simple to guess that the team works as a team and when this, in any sector, only good things can happen. The department is immaculate, everything is treated in detail, the much vaunted Italian carelessness does not find space there. Then there is another element that goes beyond the ability of doctors, paramedics and the expert hand of the surgeon. It is called empathy, or the ability to give the right words at the right time, avoiding slipping into the habit of others’ pain. In surgery, in Rimini, all the staff are not victims of this kind of addiction, the one that leads you not to look people in the eye, not to smile, to become a simple and insignificant number useful for some statistics on the number of operations in the ward and little else. I hope you can do without this excellence, but know that every single day, without ending up in the newspapers, in that department there are people who work with love and professionalism. Yes, the word love. A way, apparently distant from everyday life and vaguely utopian, but in reality it is from there that the beautiful end things take shape and then they are accomplished. I speak on the phone with Dr. Gianluca Garulli, he reassures me about the positive outcome of the surgery just completed and I thank him for everything down, then I add that since writing is my job, I would have thrown a few lines on this experience. He listens to me carefully and then adds: “Thank you, we all desperately need good news – he repeats it twice – Today you started the day with a big smile.” Then he has to say hello to me because, like every day, the operating room awaits him. This Italy also exists. Let’s never forget that.
Luca Pagliari