Christmas arrived a few days earlier in Lampedusa: last night, at 10.30 pm, Fatima was born, also nicknamed “the crew’s baby” by the soldiers of the Italian coast guard, who helped her see the light together with the doctors on board while returning to the port of Lampedusa.
The mother of the little girl was on a boat with 43 other people, including 17 women and 3 minors, who had fled from the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali and Burkina. They were arriving in Lampedusa, docking at the Favarolo pier was in progress, but Fatima wanted to see the world. “We can do it, we can do it,” the men in uniform repeated to the woman, while for the woman as the contractions approached. There wasn’t time to transfer her to the Lampedusa outpatient clinic: her baby was born on the patrol boat.
In the sea of indifference
annalisa cuzzocrea
The Ivorian woman, already the mother of another daughter, was immediately assisted by doctors and nurses from the Asp of Palermo, Usmaf and 118, in the presence of a cultural mediator. Both are doing well and are hospitalized in Agrigento for the normal postpartum course.
Healthcare workers assisted the young woman and the baby Angela Ferruzza, Cristina Geraci, Veronica Billeci, Maria Raimondo, Filippo Brancaleone e Nadia D’Agostino, in addition to the ASP cultural mediator, Moussah. Then transferred to the outpatient clinic in Contrada Grecale, the operators of the PTE, Mauro Marino, Franco Galletto and Francesco Zappalà they stabilized mother and daughter, before being transported by helicopter to Agrigento. Coordinating the Lampedusa medical facility is Dr Francesco D’Arcathe same who will do the inspection of the corpse of the little Rokia, who lived for thirty months and drowned in the sinking of the small iron boat which on Sunday was en route to Lampedusa after a two-day crossing from Tunisia.
“This birth has lifted our morale a bit, after Rokia’s death,” said the young cultural mediator, as he is preparing to leave Lampedusa to spend the Christmas holidays in Palermo with his loved ones. Immediately after Christmas he will return to Lampedusa, ready for new health emergencies.