“Don’t worry, the mask is not needed”. It sounds unbelievable, but it happened in a hospital, not a no-vax conspiracy rally. We are in Messina, at the Papardo Hospital, where the triage looks like the square of a bar, the health personnel do not wear a mask or keep it on the chin in front of the incredulous eyes of the witnesses. And patients are left for hours without a mask and without even a tampon.
No swab and no mask: “Don’t worry, the mask is not needed”. It sounds unbelievable, but it happened in a hospital, not a no-vax conspiracy rally. We are in Messina, atPapardo Hospital, where, judging from what was staged in the incredulous eyes of witnesses first in the triage, then in the emergency room, Covid-19 does not seem to exist. It doesn’t matter if Sicily has yellow zone numbers. But let’s go step by step.
The hospital triage looks like a bar
On the evening of last July 10, a young 20-year-old was walking with his girlfriend on the Messina seafront, when, struck by an illness accompanied by dizziness, chest pains and difficulty in breathing, he went to the emergency room around 9 pm. The hospital, located in north Messina, has arranged as a triage a small cage surrounded by windows which is located in the waiting room. There, in the booth, patients’ blood pressure and fever are measured and preliminary registration assistance is provided. As everyone knows, triage was born precisely as a place of prophylaxis to avoid the risk of contagion from Covid-19 between the outside and inside of hospitals. It is an essential place both to treat patients and to contain the pandemic but which instead at Papardo di Messina has become a meeting place for medical staff on duty and the one who has just taken off the shift.
Patients with masks, medical staff without
In the cubicle with the patient on duty, one entered and exited, some without a mask, some with the mask lowered to the chin. And according to witnesses, at night the triage of the Papardo hospital looked like the square of a bar. A woman, who went to hospital following a foot accident, after having seen yet another nurse chatting with a colleague of his in the triage without a mask, then turned to one of them, asking for “the courtesy to wear a mask and protect patients”. “But madam, there is the glass that separates the triage-booth from the waiting room”, minimized the nurse. “Yes, but the people in the waiting room are just about to enter the triage cage”, pointed out the patient, who has been the object of glances and whispers ever since. And that’s nothing compared to what the young boy testified.
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They told him: “Don’t worry, the mask is not needed”
After waiting for hours, when his turn arrived, the young man was finally welcomed into the emergency wards. Once inside, in the excitement, he dropped the mask. He closed the doors behind him, unable to go out to take it back, so he asked the nurse who assisted him if he could receive a mask so that he could wear it. “Quiet, the mask is not needed”, it was heard. And his attempts were worth nothing: the mask, according to the nurse, is useless. Without a mask, a patient came out of the entrance door of the emergency room, still with the drip on her arm, witnesses report. “She was pale and with a desperate look, she said ‘help, they left me alone’, but we were there in the waiting room and we couldn’t do anything. Terrible”.
Four hours in the ER and zero swab
Zero swab, zero mask. The young man circulated through the emergency room wards without anyone giving him the Covid swab and without anyone providing him with a mask. For four hours, the young man has been in a hospital ward without receiving either the necessary assistance or mandatory prophylaxis for the past one and a half years in every public place. “A nightmare experience, my boyfriend left the emergency room at 4 in the morning, without a report, nor a swab, nor anything. They didn’t even give him the results of the blood tests, the only tests they did, ”says his girlfriend.
For those who have the money, the only thing is to go to private hospitals
Today the young man is being treated in a private hospital, which diagnosed him with a cardiac venous complication: “At Papardo they told me it was just a panic attack.” Like most of the citizens of Messina, to receive adequate health care, it is not enough to pay taxes, one is forced to turn to private hospitals. There, at least, they damage a mask. “Over the years, the structure has become a point of reference for the national healthcare reality, ensuring a continuous and constant supply of high-level services thanks to its highly qualified healthcare and technical staff”, reads the website of the Papardo hospital.