We receive the testimony of one of our readers:
I would like to share with you the experience that my husband, a cancer patient, had at the Cosenza hospital.
The media continually represents the image of Calabrian public health in disarray, due to staff shortages, dilapidated hospital structures, waiting lists interminable problems that often lead citizens in need of care to turn to the private, or, in the worst case scenario, to be treated outside our region. Well, the fact that Calabrian healthcare has been in great difficulty for some time is news always known. The critical issues are endless, many attributable to political choices and wrong administrative ones, such as that of the many cuts to the Healthcare System National that take away fundamental resources from the territories and hospital facilities public, penalizing especially the southern regions.
However, I think there is a tendency among many towards an amplification of phenomenon, and this above all on the part of politicians and journalists, some of whom are interested only to advertise themselves, which provide a representation of healthcare Calabrian that causes indignation, since it does not take into account excellence and professionalism who are able to guarantee, day by day, with their work, the right to care and health and which, therefore, deserve to be valorised.
Precisely by virtue of my recent experience I feel I can say that it is good healthcare also exists in Calabria where, with great sacrifices and a spirit of self-sacrifice, there are doctors and healthcare personnel who contribute to the relief suffering of the sick and their families. I am referring in particular, for the matter that concerns me, to the department of urology at the hospital in Cosenza, where my husband, a cancer patient, is underwent a delicate operation in February 2024, masterfully executed by the Professor Michele Di Dio, with everyone in tow his extraordinary team.
Our odyssey began last year, when, after having carried out some tests, my husband was diagnosed with a neoplasm highly infiltrating bladder, which kept us in suspense until the day of the intervention.
I do not deny that, due to the controversies that affect our system healthcare, we had some reservations about the choice to face ours ordeal in Calabria, but then we firmly decided not to leave each other conditioned by useless stereotypes and prejudices and to rely on them completely to the care of our doctors, in particular to the professionalism of Professor Di God and his valid collaborators.
THEon February 26, after a few cycles of chemotherapy, followed by a long series of preparatory investigations, the surgical operation was carried out, which it certainly cannot be defined as routine, requiring, due to its complexity, particular skills and high-level skills.
Having to remove a tumor at high risk of progression is due resort to a particularly delicate surgical procedure. Professor Di Dio performed an operation under general anesthesia “radical cyctostomy with orthotopic neobladder”, in perspective of a immediate recovery of urinary continence and sexual function, as well as the normal functions that the delicate intervention would have inevitably compromised.
A few months after the operation, our expectations are not met been disregarded. The surgery was a perfect success, now it’s time to go back gradually to normal life. The postoperative course will certainly be long, given the complexity and the importance of the intervention, but results were immediately evident satisfactory that help us to look ahead with optimism and to face with greater serenity the fight towards a complete recovery. Usually, due to the deep-rooted prejudice towards our structures, however interventions of a certain importance are preferred to migrate to other hospitals of the north, without considering that, despite lights and shadows, also in ours tormented Calabria there are great professionals, able to respond to patient care needs and to achieve, albeit with a thousand difficulties, excellent results. Without a shadow of a doubt, Professor Di Dio, a high caliber professional, is back fully among the excellences of our region, and beyond.
I feel, furthermore, to add that the entire urology department of the hospital Cosenza, thanks to the seriousness and professionalism of the medical staff and paramedic, is a department of great value that has nothing to envy of other departments hospitals of the large structures in the north.
The experience we lived, and which we are still living, allowed me, therefore, to experience first-hand a reality that is very different from the one that too often, however superficiality and poor critical sense, is described, a reality made of professionals, not only highly trained, but also always attentive to needs of the patients, always very thoughtful, available and prompt.
In light of what has been said, I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to Professor Michele Di Dio, shining example of healthcare excellence, great professional, extremely helpful, friendly and above all human, always ready to give a word of comfort to patients and families.
A sincere one appreciation obviously goes to all the operators of the department, specialists of
great experience and extraordinary human qualities. As a citizen who loves her land, I therefore feel the duty to offer one positive testimony of Calabrian healthcare, a healthcare that, albeit among thousand inconveniences, is able to resist and be highly competitive.
Representing the Calabrian healthcare system as a reality in disarray, that has no more hope, doesn’t do justice to our land, why not account is taken of those who, despite everything, have decided to remain at their home service, carrying out with great dignity and professionalism in the work of a doctor. I would add that this continuous and insistent denigration of our system health care has nothing constructive, given that, especially on the part of the professionals, we are at pains to highlight always and only negativity, without deal with real problems, which also exist and should be addressed greater sense of responsibility and less chatter. In short, it would be necessary that there were more actions and fewer words.
In renewing my most sincere thanks to the Professor Di Dio and to all its formidable team, I conclude with the hope that we can return to talk seriously about Calabrian healthcare, without preconceived judgments, having as the sole objective an effective recovery of the critical conditions in which it is in the exclusive interest of doctors and paramedics, of whom it is necessary support and enhance the work, and, therefore, in the interest of our patients.
Barbara
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