Italian doctors say watching patients die alone is breaking their hearts
As coronavirus ravages Italy, straining hospitals at capacity, dying patients often have to say their final farewells over the phone
Last Friday, Italy overtook China to have the highest death toll from coronavirus in the world, with 3405 fatalities compared with China’s 3245.
Dr Romano Paolucci, who came out of retirement to help at a hospital in Italy’s coronavirus epicentre, says one of the hardest things for him is not so much seeing people die — he is used to that.
It is seeing them die alone, without a loved one by their side, often having to say their final farewell over a scratchy mobile phone line.
Dr Paolucci is one of 70 doctors working long and exhausting shifts at the small Oglio Po Hospital, which until only a month ago, was a normal provincial institution, treating everything from tonsils to tumors.
