Health
On her way to the hospital 8 kilometers (5 miles) away, Settembrese stops at her parents’ bakery. From the sidewalk, Settembrese waves to her mother with a rubber-gloved hand. Her mother makes treats for her co-workers, among them a casatiello, a kind of braided bread studded with eggs and salami that’s a specialty of her parents’ native Naples.
Walking Pepe and chatting with fellow dog owners at a safe distance “is my only social life,” Settembrese says. The northern region of Lombardy is the area of Italy with the country’s most cases and deaths.
But Settembrese speaks of her new family — her patients and colleagues — with whom she has forged bonds in these past fraught weeks.
The patients “live their life alone. Sometimes they die alone,” Settembrese says.
Before she leaves work for the night, she reviews with her colleagues how the patients are faring. Not just how well they are breathing but whether they feel angry or distraught because relatives have died from COVID-19.
Once off duty, the nurses call each other to ask how their patients are doing.
“We feel a little like we’re their family,” Settembrese says. “They are patients who enter into your soul.”
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Frances D’Emilio reported from Rome.
Health AP Exclusive AP PHOTOS: For Milan nurse, virus patients enter the soul By LUCA BRUNO and - The Associated Press
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