Goodbye to Silvetti: he made Sardinian pediatrics make the leap in quality

He leaves his signature in the history of Sardinian paediatrics and a precious legacy for all mothers, because it was he - in 1974 - who was able to guarantee its presence alongside the little hospitalized children. He did so in a whisper, even when that right became law just a few years later, putting an end to a privilege hitherto granted only to those who could afford the luxury of paying for a room. Mario Silvetti, the breakthrough man in pediatrics, died yesterday at the age of 88.

Fresh out of his degree he was hired at the Macciotta Clinic. It was 1958, his entrance among the "grown-ups" very little anticipated the poliomyelitis epidemic which brought an average of ten to fifteen children a day to the structure, now closed, for whom adequate care did not yet exist.

«Years that I remember with anguish», he recounted in the pages of our newspaper eleven years ago. Also citing the cases of cholera and viral hepatitis that entered hospitals together with the mice.

Those were certainly difficult times for Sardinian healthcare, which Silvetti probably would have continued to watch with the right dose of severity. Recalling his appointment as head physician in 1974, with which he celebrated forty years at the Santissima Trinità. To then move once again: inaugurating the opening of the Brotzu in 1982.