PORDENONE – When fate decides to break down the cards of life, anything can really happen. Yeah, it seems impossible, yet it’s just like that. Two women, two visits to the emergency room without taking x-rays, two identical diagnoses, “a severe contusion”, the same treatment “five days of painkillers” and the same outcome: it was not a blow, but an undiagnosed fracture. But there’s more: both women have the same initials, DV. Incredible.
And it’s all true. However, there are three things that differ: obviously they are not the same women, one lives in Pordenone, the other in Codroipo in the province of Udine, the emergency rooms are different and finally one had a fractured elbow, the other the fibula. Seeing what happened, however, it seems that reality was more imaginative than any invented story.
THE FIRST
In recent days The Gazette has published the misadventure of DV, a woman from Pordenone who ended up in the emergency room after a fall at home. The doctor who had visited her liquidated her without deeming it necessary to have her done with an x-ray. A painkiller is enough. A few days later, however, the pain was still strong. New visit and the discovery: there was a fracture in the elbow.
THE SECOND
Yesterday a letter arrives in the editorial office. Still writing DV, but it’s another woman who tells her health mishap, very similar to the previous one. The first aid is to San Daniele del Friuli, a town evidently better known for its ham than for the quality of care in its hospital. “I’m DV and have the same initials as the woman whose story I read. I live in Codroipo, I read the article and I seem to relive my own mishap, even if it happened to my daughter. Upsetting. identical».
LAST EASTER
«The same thing, in fact – says DV of Codroipo – happened to me on April 16, 2022, the eve of Easter, however in the emergency room of San Daniele del Friuli. After a fall with the scooter, my daughter is taken to the hospital for tests. After the visit, she was discharged with a diagnosis of simple contusion, but without X-rays or more specific tests, despite the fact that she had severe pain in her leg. The doctor in her diagnosis also writes that a cure with painkillers is sufficient. We leave a little more reassured, even if that story of the missing plate didn’t completely convince us».
THE RETURN
“All finished? Not even in a dream. Since the pains didn’t subside, two days later I went back to the ER. This time they did the x-rays and the result was clear: compound fracture of the fibula! Not only fracture, but even dislocated. Moral of the story forty days of plaster and endless physiotherapy sessions that are still ongoing. We are outraged by what happened and by the responses received to our requests for clarification. According to the doctors, in fact, their procedure was not wrong. In short, according to them that slab was not needed, despite the mistake since it was not a contusion. I’ve never made an official statement, but I’m finding out that such events, unfortunately, are neither isolated nor rare. Indeed, from what I have heard around, they occur often and in all the emergency rooms of hospitals in the region. I don’t want to draw hasty conclusions – he concludes – because it would be a bit like shooting at the Red Cross. Instead I want to invite everyone to reflect on health, professionalism and responsibility. It is important that the population knows and understands what is happening so that similar events do not happen again. And those who made a mistake take their own responsibilities ».