GALATINA – She has lived through years of battles to defend the rights of patients and ask for better healthcare for all, now Rita Tarantino, head of the mixed advisory committee of the ASL of Lecce, fights on the other side: she has been in bed for more than a month of hospital, at the Santa Caterina Novella hospital in Galatina, after being hit by a stroke, but continues to not lack the energy that has always distinguished her and to tell, also through her own direct experience, in this very delicate moment , the world of public health in Salento.
“We have a structure of excellence that few people know and that, instead, is efficient – he declares -, if I had to define it I would call it the center of miracles, because many enter here like me, paralyzed and unable to speak, and, thanks to the help of the medical team, of the therapists, of the Oss and of all those who work inside, we return to talk and move ”.
The reference is to the rehabilitation center: the structure, directed by the physiatrist Antonio Faita, until some time ago stood in the former hospital of San Cesario di Lecce, which, however, due to the covid was dedicated to the care of patients who have contracted the virus, veterans of resuscitation and pneumology. Thus the neurological department of physical rehabilitation therapy, the only public in Salento, was transferred to Galatina: here, therefore, the motor rehabilitation following traumas and cerebral strokes takes place.
“They are all very good – says Rita Tarantino – and the therapists are real angels: people must know this place, because many times we think that there are no structures of this level on our territory: and, instead, it is not so, I can testify with my experience “.
Of the moment of the stroke, the head of the mixed advisory committee of the ASL of Lecce remembers little: “I was at home, quiet, when at a certain point I did not feel well: I only remember so much confusion”. Then the immediate transport to the Stroke unit of Lecce, the emergency neurology service of the Vito Fazzi hospital, dedicated to patients with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke in the acute phase: “I was in intensive care for fifteen days: also the Stroke unit di Lecce is a center of excellence, with many serious and competent professionals. I was lucid, but I could not speak: I stammered for two weeks, then they transferred me here, in an ambulance and for twenty days I first started talking again and then I started to take my first steps. I am the living proof of the efficiency of this place, I keep saying: for me it is a miracle “.
In recent weeks, many have called her to ascertain her conditions and wish her a speedy recovery, including the regional health councilor, Rocco Palese, who has undertaken to relaunch the rehabilitation center. But what is most striking are the requests for information on the rehabilitation center: “Many people have contacted me and still continue to do so, to understand where this center is located, how to access it: I am happy with this, because it is an excellence that is not you know enough. Here, they put you back on your feet and just a few weeks ago it didn’t seem possible ”.