She remained close to many of her relatives on the verge of death. Not with her mother, it wasn't possible for her: «She left at 8.24. They only let us know after 12. We had been out there for hours and nobody let us know anything. “Sorry, I forgot”: so the doctor told us ».

Maria Bonaria Demuro from Cagliari barely holds back the tears. His mother, Rosetta Madeddu, died in recent days in the Pneumology department of the Santissima Trinità, in Cagliari . He was 86 years old. The children had long been prepared for this eventuality. But not for how it went.

«My mother had been hospitalized for about twenty days, we knew that her conditions were critical and that they had gotten much worse. My brothers live in France, they should have returned.' On the last night «I asked to be able to stay. It was not possible. And I went home."

The next day, Demuro is back in the hospital. It was about 10 o'clock. «We have asked several times to enter, but no one has granted us an audience. They opened after 12. It was only then that we were told that my mother had died more than three hours earlier. And that we would find her in the mortuary.'

A shock. Which does not distract Demuro's attention from an acknowledgment: "During the entire period of hospitalization, doctors and nurses did everything possible and at their best: they were always there, my mother could not receive better care". But there is a but: «Right at the end, when it would have been useful, sensitivity was lacking. Altogether. So knowing that our mother was dead hurt us, very badly».

The complaints have been made: «But I know it won't help. And, at this point, I don't care much». Why tell this story, then: "Our hope is that this report of ours", is the explanation of the woman, "is useful to prevent other patients and families from finding themselves in the same unpleasant and painful situation".

Henry Fresu

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