Naples, Feb. 22 (LaPresse) – "We feel like a failure for not having returned the child to his mother’s arms. It is a great sorrow, but believe me: we did everything and even more for Mimì. I remember him well: he was lively, cheerful. But above all, he was the child we had to return to his mother, and this did not happen despite all our great efforts." This is how Giovanni Bufalino, head nurse of the intensive care unit of the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Congenital Heart Disease Unit at Monaldi Hospital in Naples, where Domenico, the two-year-old child who underwent a heart transplant with an organ that later proved damaged, died yesterday, spoke in an interview with La Repubblica.
"What we could do, we did. Perhaps even something more. For us, it was a tragedy to change our thoughts in recent days—transforming them from hope to an adverse event—regarding the path undertaken for this child. Surely it had not begun in the best way, but our effort was always aimed at the best solution for the child," he continued.
"We always believed we could save Domenico because, for us, a miracle is something that, if it must happen, we have to be ready to seize the moment. We devoted ourselves body and soul and believed in it until we received the verdict that there would be no future for the child," he added, recounting that "we often moistened his lips with a drop of water, straightened his little leg to make him more comfortable, trying as much as possible to alleviate any suffering. We knew the little one was sedated and therefore did not feel pain. But in those moments, you don’t think about that. Domenico was a very special patient; the ECMO also restricted us in terms of mobilization: for two months, a full 60 days, he was attached to a machine."
Regarding the relationship with the mother, Bufalino explains, "we tried to comfort her. The mother sought understanding. She wanted her child. And I believe she felt our strong closeness. She searched in our eyes for the hope of bringing Mimì home. But we could not return him to her. In the hospital, things sometimes do not go as you wish. But a case like this truly leaves a mark because of all the negative events. We also faced daily media pressure."
© Copyright LaPresse
