It was last April when Filippo De Siano, medico of continuity of care Forio of Ischiatravels the streets of Ischia on a motorbike, witnesses a bad accident: he stops, provides assistance, coordinates his colleagues from 118, helps save the life of a tourist of Bergamo. A simple but exemplary gesture, which refers to the ethical duty of doctors, to the natural propensity to take charge of a crisis situation. A gesture recounted by the protagonists during the Hippocratic Oath ceremony in Città della Scienza organized by Bruno Zuccarelli, president of the Order of Doctors of Naples and its province.
INSIGHTS
«An instinctive and natural gesture made by my colleague – said Zuccarelli – but which had the strength to lead to Naples Cinzia Nicolidaughter of the tourist rescued six months ago in Ischia. After sending us a touching letter of thanks, he is here today after having traveled a thousand kilometers from his home Bergamo».
Gratitude
The woman gives voice and face to a touching testimony: “Mine is a proof of gratitude and respect towards a rescue machine – she underlined – which started spontaneously, saving my mother’s life”. From the stage she then emotionally underlined: «My mother was cared for with great humanity and competence. That’s why she’s alive.” A positive epilogue that cannot be taken for granted: «When I arrived in Ischia, after a long, agonizing and difficult journey, my mother was alive and cared for in the best possible way in the island’s hospital. From the stories of some witnesses I learned that she had been rescued in an exemplary manner. So I stubbornly looked for this obscure doctor who had intervened while he was on the street and who no one knew. I was welcomed by him, looked after, taken to the site of the accident.
He explained everything to me in detail. An example of availability, vocation, ethics, competence and humanity to be respected and recognized. My being here today – he then concluded – is a sign of support and gratitude not only to Dr. De Siano but to an entire professional category that has set itself in motion in the best possible way and that daily carries out priceless work in the shadows in the most appropriate way. A common good to be protected has long since become the target of dozens of barbaric episodes of which the news informs us. White coats reviled, raped, forced to respond by retreating into defensive medicine rather than encouraged in the generosity of doing for the good of the patient alongside their families. Violence that should outrage everyone, make the entire civil society revolt. And which instead we and especially the doctors suffer.”
The answer
Doctor De Siano intervened immediately afterwards, visibly moved. A few simple words to remember the naturalness of his gesture and his lifelong commitment to the dictates of a Hippocratic Oath that remains printed in his heart and mind after his University years.
