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Northern Italy, 2020
During the last long months Italian healthcare workers’ lives have been disrupted by SARS-CoV-2, a Coronavirus that has killed thousands of people due to Severe and Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Since February 21st 2020 - the day when the first infected patient was diagnosed in Italy - all General Practitioners, Nurses, Intensive Care Specialist, Healthcare Assistant, Volunteers and Doctors of every specialities have been committed to take the country out of this pandemic that has affected indistinctly healthy and ill people, young and old, ordinary citizens and health workers themselves.
But how has Coronavirus impacted all health care workers who have been working full time in those COVID units? Their efforts caused a high emotional impact, a cost difficult to quantify and often equally difficult to identify and evaluate.
In their working sphere all these people have been deprived of their medical and ethical certainties, they have been thrown onto a battlefield to fight without appropriate weapons or strategy and several of them have fallen on that field. In the private sphere they had to fight against the fear of finding themselves in danger and being the cause of potential contagion of their beloved ones.
Each of them had a tiring and highly stressful experience.
The unknown and uncertainties of the disease, the emotional distance caused by the physical barrier of PPE when dealing with patients, the responsibility of taking quick and tough decisions and rising toll of deaths.
The unbearable heat inside the suit, the misty sight, the heavy breaths behind the masks.
The screamed but distorted voices, the communication at sight, the common fear in doctors and patients’ eyes during intubation.
The tears in the shower, the confinement from the beloved, the lack of a hugs in times of need, the forced detachment for their salvation.
The recurring nightmares, the thought to colleagues, the anger against the system.
The contagion. The forced isolation at home.
The fear of dying.
The Impotence.