Care of cancer children in Feltre: there are funds lacking staff

The project linked to a rich donation is struggling to take off to avoid travel to Padua for the young patients

FELT. There are one hundred and ten thousand euros to spend on the training of pediatricians from Feltre on the oncological management of children who, after the establishment of the therapy at the reference centers in the Veneto, can return to the “home” hospital for the continuation of treatment. But the funds, the result of the donation three years ago by the deceased Maria Sanvido di Cesio with destination specified in the will, to which are added 20 thousand euros from Mano Amica, remained frozen due to the pandemic but also due to the lack of staff which would not allow updates in Padua to the few specialists in the department who must guarantee the functioning of the service.

With respect to the simultaneous care clinic for adult cancer patients activated, again thanks to the Sanvido donation, by the former head of Oncology Davide Pastorelli and the current primary of Palliative Care Roberta Perin, the project for the development of pediatric oncohematological and palliative care is still at the starting line.

The president of Mano Amica, Paolo Biacoli, reports this from the news columns. Who writes: «Unfortunately the project is still in its initial phase. The commitment shown so far by the general manager Maria Grazia Carraro and the president of the Città della Speranza Foundation Andrea Camporese is beyond question. The meeting organized by the general manager Carraro in recent days to start the project bodes well ».

And it was Loris Paoletti, curator and guarantor of Maria Sanvido’s testamentary wills, who on this occasion advocated the resumption of what has stopped. “I know what doctors have gone through with the pandemic in progress, with the need to ensure the maximum efficiency of the pediatric service, I know that they have done and continue to do a lot. But they are asked to do something more, that is to put their whole heart into this project that allows young hospitalized patients to have the best care in a family environment. Let us remember that Maria Sanvido’s donation was also and above all intended to improve the conditions of profound suffering of sick children and their families. If there are no doctors, and I realize that it is not a small thing, we know that we also have the City of Hope at our side, which strongly wants the take-off of this project ».

Respect for Maria Sanvido’s will is equivalent to reconfirming Feltre as a point of support for the province of Belluno as regards the assistance of children with cancer, from two to three every year. This will allow the anticancer treatment of young patients at Santa Maria del Prato, on the basis of therapy protocols established by the Paduan reference center.

The centenarian from Cesiola Maria Sanvido through the executor Loris Paoletti, had wanted to allocate her life savings “to those who suffer”. Thus Ulss and Mano Amica have identified three strands, that of the extension of palliative care to all nursing homes, that of the outpatient clinic for pain management in cancer patients and that of PeFeltrine diatria suitable for very sick children. —

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