Pistoia, 17 October 2024 – There was a mobilization of individual citizens and associations to help Andrea Giardina, 42 years old, ALS patient who has had to pay for transportation to a rehabilitation center out of pocket since October 1st and lives in an apartment without a lift. The first to come forward was the Misericordia di Montale who called our editorial office to have the contact details of Andrea’s family and offer their availability to provide free transport.
«We provide one of our vehicles – says the director of services at the Misericordia di Montale Massimiliano Corrieri –, we communicated this to Andrea’s mother the same day the article was published in La Nazione and she was very happy with it, now we are agreeing on the organizational details based on the family’s needs. We have yet to define the details on the number of transports to be carried out, but our association certainly does not hold back for services of this kind as he always has done».
The Misericordia di Montale does not deny its usual readiness and efficiency to mobilize for solidarity initiatives, an attitude that it has demonstrated both in collective emergencies such as that of the latest flood and in less visible but equally important situations, such as helping individual families in need. The case of Andrea Giardina it aroused great emotion in our readers, many of whom, after reading the article by Linda Meoni, got in touch with our editorial team to find out how to make their own contribution. «I would like to help this person – a reader wrote to us who does not want his name to be published – I am available to personally pay for two months of transport, but without appearing in any way».
Please remember that Andrea Giardina, from October 1st, pays 35 euros for each transport to the Maic rehabilitation center where he goes twice a week. Two months of transportation, which is our reader’s offer, they would therefore be equivalent to 580 euros. Our generous reader also said he was available to inquire about possible free transport to the Military Brotherhood where he carried out volunteer work for many years.
Andrea and his mother Anita said that for a certain period they had access to twenty free transports provided by public health, but once that number was exhausted and they still needed physiotherapy they had to pay the shipping being unable to reach the rehabilitation center by their own means. In fact, due to the worsening of his illness, Andrea is in a wheelchair and his apartment does not have a lift.
On Andrea’s case we received a note yesterday from the Pistoiese Health Society which wrote the following: «Regarding the article that appeared yesterday in your newspaper entitled “Prisoner of ALS. Without a lift and forced to pay for transport for treatment”the Pistoiese Health Society specifies, to the extent of its competence, that it has taken steps to authorize the transport, as required by the regional resolutions for fragile patients, from the moment the request was made”.
Giacomo Bini
