Italy: Our capacity may reach its limits - ER doctor warns against violating restrictions

M/S Sign of Gugliermo Da Saliceto Hospital, Piacenza
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "The night was very exhausting, just like all the nights over the past two weeks around here. We saw dozens and dozens of people of varying ages that arrive at our emergency room manifesting coronavirus-like pneumonia. Many of them have respiratory distress, some also severe, and thus require sub-intensive or intensive treatment."
W/S ER entrance
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "They are all patients who need human contact, who need some words of comfort, which is difficult to give them because we have the masks and all the protective devices. There can't be much contact, therefore, even from a humane point of view, there is another barrier. For us, this means reinventing the way we communicate with this type of patient, of which there are many, but that doesn't mean we can leave them behind."
W/S Doctor and paramedic talking
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "Many patients, in such a small amount of time, determines that we commit ourselves even more and thus makes everything very, very exhausting."
M/S Sign reads (Italian): "Emergency Room"
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "At the moment there are approximately 40 patients that are waiting to be admitted, all with the same problem, which is coronavirus-like pneumonia."
W/S Doctors discuss while garage door opens
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "The path for the relatives of those who, unfortunately, won't make it through this, is particularly tough because they can't even get close to the sick, as there are restrictions in this regard."
M/S Ambulance leaving garage
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "This epidemic permits us to understand the fact that at the end of the day, we are all human beings, we are all the same, when facing these outbreak or these viruses."
M/S Ambulance leaving hospital
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "The important thing right now is that people, everyone, keep one thing in mind. You must stay at home. Because this epidemic will only be resolved by reducing the number of infections, and thus, reducing the amount of contact between people. Only in this way will you allow us health workers to manage patients, if there are too many it will become too difficult to manage everyone together."
W/S Emergency room driveway
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "There must be a stronger commitment towards respecting the restrictions. I want to appeal, in particular to the youngest among us and to young people like myself, for a bit lets avoid aperitivi, football kickarounds, let's stay at home."
W/S Emergency room driveway
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "It's clear that if the community doesn't follow the restrictions and the numbers continue to rise, at a certain point, our ability to help people will reach its limit."
C/U Sign reading (Italian): "To emergency room"
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "If the situation gets worse, and there were to be even more patients, even more than the current trend, clearly we would need to try and understand how to classify patients based on those that have more chances of surviving and those that have less, but I really hope this doesn't happen."
C/U Sign indicating different hospital departments
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "At the moment, I would say it's too early to talk about improvements in the trend. We are still a bit premature for that, it's too early."
C/U Picture by a child reading (Italian): "Be strong and thanks for everything. To the doctors and the nurses and lots of strength also to the patients."
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "The image of the nurse in the newspapers slumped over and sleeping out of exhaustion could have been reproduced by myself and a colleague of mine a quarter of an hour ago in the emergency room, waiting for the shift change. This is because we have had sleepless nights working hard, trying to save lives and carry on helping people suffering from coronavirus. The level of morale among my colleagues and myself is high, though."
M/S Ambulance leaving
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "I reckon that I can say that we are becoming experts on the treatment of patients with coronavirus on a global level."
M/S Visitors arriving at hospital
M/S Doctors talking to visitors
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "I think that the upcoming weeks will depend a lot on how well citizens will behave themselves. If we are able to reduce the amount of contact and the amount of infections the situation will slowly get back to normal."
M/S Ambulance parking
SOT, Dr Davide Bastoni, Doctor at Piacenza Hospital (Italian): "We still haven't reached the peak, thus we are still in the midst of the emergency."
W/S Deserted Piacenza city centre
W/S Basilica di Santa Maria di Campagna
C/U Sign on 'Circolo 10' shop door reading (Italian): "For the good of the town, and for public spirit we will remain closed... Thank you, Circolo 10"
M/S Police wearing surgical masks
W/S A deserted square in the city centre
SCRIPT
An ER doctor at the Gugliermo Da Saliceto Hospital in Piacenza gave Ruptly an exclusive insight into the daily struggles of healthcare workers battling against the coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday.
"The night was very exhausting, just like all the nights over the past two weeks around here. We saw dozens and dozens of people of varying ages that arrive at our emergency room manifesting coronavirus-like pneumonia," said Dr. Davide Bastoni.
"At the moment there are approximately 40 patients that are waiting to be admitted, all with the same problem, which is coronavirus-like pneumonia," added the doctor.
Piacenza, a city of 102,000 inhabitants in the Emilia Romagna region has found itself in the middle of northern Italy's coronavirus outbreak and has been on total lockdown since Sunday. The city has suffered 50 deaths since the outbreak began and has reached 633 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
"It's clear that if the community doesn't follow the restrictions and the numbers continue to rise, at a certain point, our ability to help people will reach its limit," said doctor Bastoni.
"If the situation gets worse, and there were to be even more patients, even more than the current trend, clearly we would need to try and understand how to classify patients based on those that have more chances of surviving and those that have less, but I really hope this doesn't happen," he added.
Although Dr. Bastoni recognised that "we are becoming experts on the treatment of patients with coronavirus on a global level," he confessed that "we still haven't reached the peak, thus we are still in the midst of the emergency."
Italy remains Europe's worst hit country by the coronavirus which has killed 631 people.