Italy's front-line medical heroes, 8 months later
(16 Dec 2020) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4301986 Italy's doctors and nurses have spent 2020 watching the chests of their patients rising and falling as they strain to get enough air to keep them alive. Each life saved has been a victory in the battle that has claimed over 50,000 Italian lives since February. The regular beep of the vital-signs monitors accompany anesthetist Dr. Sebastiano Petracca and his head nurse Mirco Petruzza as they make their rounds between 10 patients in one of the Casalpalocco hospital's three intensive care units. Petracca is all business, moving about covered head to toe in protective equipment with just his eyes visible behind his visor. He's checking data printouts, studying the patients before declaring that today is a "good day" because they have managed to remove a tube from a woman who had a tracheotomy and now she is breathing on her own. He thinks she will be moved out of the ICU in a few days. Petracca, 48, is small, wiry and his green eyes are watery as though he is on the verge of tears. But he is not. Petracca is a fighter who has been working every day in his intensive care unit since early March and there is no stopping him. As the critical cases grow, they keep expanding the intensive care units he is responsible for. There are 140 beds in his Covid hospital, three intensive care units with 40 beds, 32 of them occupied. Petracca's head nurse, Mirco Petruzza, is the opposite of his boss, gentle, affectionate and emotional. A father, with a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old, he has put his family life on hold as he shares his warmth with critically ill patients. In a second section of the unit Petracca and Petruzza find the nurses struggling with a newly-arrived patient. The man cannot get enough air, he is conscious and agitated. Petruzza steps in, gently taking the elderly man's hand in his blue gloved one and explains that they have to put a "helmet" oxygen tent on him. The man groans and Petruzza tells him they will give him a moment to take a big breath. The team works quickly to fix the clear plastic container over the straining patient's head. Dr. Petracca notes that he will probably have to be intubated before moving on. A few beds down the row, an intubated patient appears to be stirring. Petruzza stops to stroke his head and tell him that he is in the intensive care unit. There are over 3,000 patients in intensive care across Italy on the same day. Italy became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the Europe with the first patient on record in northern Italy on February 20th. After that it spread rapidly throughout the region of Lombardy, across the north and down Italy's boot. Italy with roughly 25-percent of its population over 65 was at a huge risk. In March, Rome's Casalpalocco hospital was rapidly turned into a Covid hospital and Doctor Petracca put in charge. He has not had a day off since March 18th and takes pride in the lives he has saved in that time. He is still in touch with his first Covid patient, a 58-year-old man who was in intensive care for 12 days and another 20 in sub-intensive care before being released. It was in that period, on March 27th, that Doctor Petracca and his team briefly posed for photos taken by Associated Press photographers at the end of their 12-hour shifts, their masks shoved down below their chins and the strain and exhaustion clearly visible on their faces. As head nurse in the hospital's intensive care unit, Petruzza said he felt a sense of unity in the spring as he battled with his co-workers to save lives, but he was afraid. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
