Of the many experiences lived in Crema, Italy, as part of the Henry Reeve contingent, Eduardo Brito Pérez, from Las Tunas, keeps numerous photos. He will look at them again and again on the trip back to the Homeland, during the isolation that must continue in Havana, when the years pass, when his family and friends ask him and want details, when his children want to share the pride for their father. But the deepest memories do not fit in an image.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- Those last days of March, neither the different language nor the cold that he felt when he arrived in Europe was what most impacted the soul of this nurse with the Hemodialysis room at the Ernesto Guevara de la Serna hospital, in this capital city. He will no longer forget the number of COVID-19 patients; the crowded wards, the corridors with beds… Everywhere in the sanitary facility where they first arrived, there were people with shortness of breath, fever or any other symptom caused by SARS-CoV-2.
He remembers, in particular, the case of a lady who is already undergoing rehabilitation. "She wrote to thank us," he tells me via Messenger. “She could neither walk nor go to the bathroom due to the lack of air. She was referred to the Cuban hospital, as they identified it. In the letter she said it this way: '... I came in and I was greeted by angels who told me to come in, you're going to save yourself and that was them, the Cubans ... they did everything to me and taught me how to walk after so many years.' It was very sad because she had lost her husband and son from COVID-19."
While we were talking, the members of the brigade were already in quarantine prior to the return trip to the country; some were making exercises, others were preparing the suitcase, most of them were talking to family, friends and Health authorities who called them to find out about them. They also joked with each other, "You know what the Cuban is like and our wisecracks," says Eduardo.
I ask if they already knew each other. He replies that many were fighting the battle against the Ebola virus in West Africa in 2014. And the comparison is inevitable. “This mission is very risky due to the contagion power of the new coronavirus. But, Ebola had a very high lethality. What we learned there was useful, above all, for the organization of work.”
The constant sirens of the ambulances and a large number of patients marked the arrival of the Cuban professionals. At that time, Lombardy, the region to which Crema belongs, had become the epicenter of the pandemic in Italy. Only heroes - even if they do not recognize themselves as such - could take on a panorama of this magnitude, with incomparable fortitude, preparation and altruism.
“The patients were there waiting for us. The situation was serious in the facilities of the city; it was not enough for more. They called us and showed us the hallways full of beds. The military worked rapidly in the construction of the field hospital. Only 24 hours and we already started; in the Red Zone all the time.”
At the age of 54, Eduardo makes kindness his day to day. From the beginnings in Emergencies of the “Guevara,” then Intensive Care, and then the Hemodialysis services. “There it is like being in the family with patients, because they come three times a week and you get very involved. You are always thinking about them, it is a difficult life they lead and you want them to have a good time, at least the hours they are in the hospital.”
In addition to fighting the Ebola and COVID-19 epidemics, Eduardo had already faced difficult scenarios in other countries. He left Natacha, his wife, a nurse at the Guillermo Tejas polyclinic, and his children, to help others. He had delivered the best of his work in Haiti and Ecuador.
The photos of the farewell and tribute to the medical brigade in Crema filled the social networks. It thrills, again and again, to see people as they greet them as they pass by and shout "grazie." The appreciation of the city's inhabitants and the authorities was translated into applause, because as the mayor said, it was much easier with them. Among those men with red pullovers with the inscription “I'm called Cuba,” there was also one of the good sons of Las Tunas.
