CATANZARO – «My father was discharged after twenty-two days of hospitalization, and was sent home with a general diagnosis, but without the result of the biopsy»: the story is from a woman who chose to reveal her father’s ordeal, cancer patient hospitalized since the beginning of May in the surgery department of the Pugliese hospital in Catanzaro. The diagnosis is dramatic, cancer, but the management of the case, according to the story, is like an ordeal: a long uphill march in a healthcare system that struggles to be “human” for a cancer patient.
The man is 75 years old, after this experience his family asked for a consultation outside the regional borders. Perhaps the European Oncology Institute can evaluate what to do. Certainly a conscious choice. But, in part, also a reaction to what he saw in those weeks of hospital stay in Calabria. «One thing above all – the patient’s daughter tells us on the phone – is that my father couldn’t eat. Yet, they continued to bring him food. My father was artificially fed for about fifteen days, in very critical conditions.” In the meantime, what many unfortunately saw in the wards of Calabrian hospitals was taking place. Responsibility rebound, lack of communication between departments, nursing management that is not exactly “kind”.
«My father is undergoing pain therapy – he says – one day he had to wait an hour. His pleas for help were practically ignored. At a certain point he even heard himself say “come on, it’s nothing”. Only after twenty days was he visited by an oncologist.” The paradox is that such a debilitated patient had to arrive alone in another department. «We had to go to the specialist, transporting him in a wheelchair from the surgery department». At the beginning of the month the man entered the hospital and remained “parked” in the corridor for a few days waiting for a bed. Visiting hours were poorly respected thanks to the discretion of the nursing staff. «At a certain point the visits were completely closed, they put a guard at the door. The order was to let one family member in at a time but this was not always respected by everyone. Furthermore, visiting hours were often respected.” The diagnosis dilemma takes place within the department. We need to carry out a biopsy and evaluate with certainty what to do. «Initially they told us that they wouldn’t do these types of tests in the hospital. They had given us two options: either move to Messina or go to Germaneto.”
The last one is surprising: in theory the two hospitals today are part of a single hospital company, the need to move a patient from one structure to another is not understood. Finally, the revelation. «After fifteen days we discovered, through some consultations with acquaintances, that the biopsy could be done directly on the Pugliese». Then the resignation awaiting a certain result which does not yet exist. It will take at least ten days to obtain it, necessary technical times. In the meantime, the family is looking for new consultations in the face of a system paradoxically screwed on itself, where associations should also play a key role. Spaces needed to support and direct patients and caregivers.
