“National microcitemic shame”: the appeal of the parents of sick children

For him in Sardinia there was no availability of treatment. On 16 October he took off aboard a helicopter towards the Peninsula. But only after a day of waiting at the airport, with a high fever and more corroding him inside. Because the aircraft was broken. The "he" protagonist of the misadventure is a Sardinian child. A small patient of the Microcitemico of Cagliari .

A hospital that, due to a law that did not work, remains suspended between two healthcare companies: the Asl 8 which should take charge of it and the Brotzu which in fact still manages it, even if it shouldn't. So much so that the doctors of piazzale Ricchi move to via Jenner only after working hours, by convention.

The result is that the hospital is not functioning. Doctors, nurses and Oss do everything to alleviate the inconvenience. But those are: few. The little ones pay for aseptic choices from above. Sick, of course. Of pathologies that have common names such as cancer and leukemia. They fight, their parents fight. But nobody listens to them.

Meanwhile, to understand, there are reports of Tac that arrive even a month after the exam. What if they reveal a malignant onset? Thirty days lost, without therapy. Which can mean aggravation. And death. This is why a mother in recent days called the police.

The representatives of two associations, Asgop (which brings together the parents of oncohematological children) and Socialism rights and reforms, Francesca Ziccheddu and Maria Grazia Caligaris stood in front of a computer. They wrote a letter, the third (the previous two remained unanswered) addressed to the president of the regional council, Michele Pais. We read: "The Microcitemico is a national shame, listen to us". In the letter they add that "we will not neglect to take further initiatives to make public opinion aware of the condition of discomfort of our children" because "we feel really alone and without any possibility of glimpsing a solution".

There would be a solution. And it is contained in two bills - one by the majority, the other by the opposition - which are gathering dust in the regional council. Both stipulate that the Microcitemico officially returns under the control of Arnas Brotzu. Which has the doctors, the anesthetists, the pediatric staff. In short, the staff necessary to give continuity to the care of the children.

They are not discussed, there is no space on the agenda. "We have waited for the closure for the summer period and for the subsequent renewal of Parliament", the letter reads, "but the care of our children can no longer wait".