Curly hair, brown eyes and a very sweet smile. Fatima is a six year old Algerian girl and at the end of May she was bornunderwent surgery at the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo due to a serious malformation, present since birth, which joins the esophagus and trachea, leading to continuous pain and infections. «It was a tracheo-esophageal fistula – he explains Maurizio Cheli, director of pediatric surgery at the hospital, head of the team that treated Fatima – . The malformation was not recognized at birth by local doctors, thus causing the continuous passage of food and liquids from the esophagus to the airways with recurrent pneumonia and hospitalizations in hospital in Algiers.” In fact, at the age of three, Fatima was operated on in Algiers, but unfortunately the operation was not successful and after a few weeks the little girl began to have increasingly more serious problems again. «Unfortunately, all this leaves serious signs on the lungs which suffer from the passage of gastric juices, causing irreversible lesions», explains Cheli.
It is at this point that a “health bridge” of aid was created that connects Algiers with Bergamo. The Papa Giovanni hospital becomes aware of the history of Fatima through Don Mario Cassera, a missionary of the Diocese of Bergamo who has resided in Algeria for many years. «About a year ago, Don Cassera called me telling me about a case that he had become fond of, known through Fatima’s older brother (21 years old, the eldest of six, ed.). And he asked me if we could help this little girl in Bergamo”, says Antonio Castaldello, former head of the hospital’s diagnostic imaging medical technicians, now retired. The interest of Cheli and his team and the Committee for the non-profit pediatric surgery department, chaired by Mimma Montanelli, was immediate.
Thus began the long process in Algeria to authorize the family’s exit and obtain the health visa, with the moving work of many people, professionals and otherwise, to allow Fatima’s lungs to breathe again. Mimma Montanelli’s Committee supported the travel and accommodation costs in “Casa Eleonora” (a facility to host the hospital’s youngest patients and their families), while the Lombardy Region took full responsibility for the healthcare part (hospitalization and intervention) thanks to the international cooperation program which provides funds for humanitarian health interventions. So thanks to a long and delicate surgery carried out on May 31st, the little girl’s malformation was definitively corrected.
And in a few days Fatima and her parents will return home. The role of Dr. Youcef Sadou, Algerian cardiologist of Neonatal Pathology, was also fundamental, as he facilitated as an interpreter the clinical explanations for the benefit of the family and the child and the communications between the family and professionals.
«Our center has long and consolidated experience with this type of malformation. There are many cases that come to us”, underlines Cheli. «This story shows us once again the incredible strength of children», says Mimma Montanelli.
Fatima is very attentive while the doctors and all the “grown-ups” who surround her speak around her and about her, following every gesture with their gaze and listening to every word, thanks to the help of the interpreter and of mother Nojoud and father Toufik who they hug her. «At all times, in Algeria first and here in Bergamo during the entire hospitalization (which lasted about a month, ed.) we felt constantly helped. I will never stop thanking all of you.” the mother says emotionally to those present, assisted by the interpreter.
«There isn’t a day that Fatima’s mother doesn’t thank us, even just with her eyes», highlights Antonella Ghezzi, nursing coordinator of the department. Fatima’s resignation arrived yesterday; her little girl, with her parents, will remain in Bergamo for a few more days for checks. There is the joy not only of recovery, but also of returning home soon. «We are happy to return to our children. But sorry to leave all these good people”, admits Fatima’s mother; the little girl, recovered, is truly an example of happiness. She is ready, in September, to start school again. She will go to second grade and start being the best in the class again. «You have excellent grades. She has an average of 9″, says her father proudly. And applause comes spontaneously from everyone.
