The absence of the pediatric service is one of the many tragedies experienced in the Barbagia-Mandrolisai healthcare system , between mobilizations due to serious inconveniences and parents forced on journeys of hope to guarantee care for their children.

Antonio and his wife Valentina di Tonara know this well, having just returned from a real nightmare. Last March their 5-year-old boy faced a series of complications starting from an ear infection. An odyssey between Barbagia hospitals that took them to the Gemelli in Rome.

At the end of February the child experiences severe ear pain accompanied by fever. He was taken to San Camillo di Sorgono where he was diagnosed with an ear infection and prescribed antibiotic treatment. The little one doesn't improve. The parents are forced to go to the emergency room of San Francesco di Nuoro but bronchopneumonia develops.

After three days, the child says he "sees double". He is taken to San Francesco and is immediately hospitalized. An immediate operation would be needed but in Nuoro there is no pediatric neurosurgery. Hence the need to go elsewhere: to the Gemelli in Rome.

Giorgio Ignazio Onano

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