“While I was fighting my mother died in another ward.” The story of Pontoni, hospitalized in intensive care for Covid

Fifty-one years old, he was hospitalized 10 days. He manages the Gramola bakery: his wife will reopen it on Thursday after a month

UDINE. The cough interrupts the story with its sharp blows. The oxygen concentrator is placed on the ground, attached. Dino looks at it and shows it to us. “I need to breathe. I just need to walk a few meters and go out of breath, “he says. The signs of Covid Dino Pontoni, 51, has them in body and soul. He has always been a sportsman who, together with his wife Elena and mother-in-law Nives, manages the Gramola bakery in via Grazzano. Every week he grinded 150 km on his bike, never an ailment. “Now after twenty minutes on an exercise bike I’m in pieces.”

Dino chases away the tears. Yes, because remembering those ten days in intensive care at the Udine hospital is not easy. When he had to fight «against that beast that is not seen called Covid». Just a week earlier he had greeted his father-in-law Gianfranco Gramola, founder of the bakery, who died of heart problems. It is March 15th, he has had a high fever for a few days and is short of breath and so Dino calls the ambulance. «After the first tests – he says – the situation degenerates so they put a ball in my head to make me breathe. I am transferred to intensive care where for eight days I remain with machines and masks attached to my face ». The thought of his wife, children and family members pushes him forward. Then there are the messages from friends and customers of the bakery who fill up their mobile phones: “Don’t give up Dino, come on” they write to him.

He picks it up and resists it. “And this is also thanks to doctors and nurses, angels fallen from heaven – he says -. In moments of despair, when you think that it is over and that you will never see your wife and your children again, they are there and shake your hand calling you by name and saying “Come on, we can do it” ». Dino improves and is transferred to semi-intensive pneumology for another sixteen days. While he was fighting in Udine, his mother was engaged in the same battle against Covid at the Palmanova hospital. A battle that she failed to win: Olga Chiarandini died at 78 on April 13, three days after Dino’s resignation. “I was not told he was ill – he says – they were afraid that this news could further debilitate me. My mom was a rock, she loved her grandchildren. For thirty years it has been the reference point for cycle tourism in Italy ». The thought now goes to his father Gian Antonio, Toni, who is also infected, but who is now well. Every day Dino struggles to regain normality “one step at a time”.

«I have lost 9 kg, I am debilitated. It’s hard because I can’t work – he explains -. It will take time but I try to be strong. I told my story because after a year and a half of wearing a mask, there are still those who claim that the virus does not exist and is a political strategy. Not so and I tell the deniers. I am angry because most likely the “beast” I contracted from these very superficial people. Thank you for being alive. It is only by seeing what happens, when people are dying around you, that you realize how precious our surroundings are. Thanks to the doctors, even those of Palmanova, true angels ». The bakery has been closed since 15 March. “I contracted the virus too – says Elena -, but I was not sick. Thursday 26th we reopen and I thank the owner of the walls Renato Gremese, a great gentleman, who with his family has decided to suspend our rent for a month ». Everyone is waiting to see Dino in the bakery again. He assures: «I’ll be back soon, I won’t give up». –

© breaking latest news