Head-on accident with three injured. One, the most serious, is immediately taken care of by the 118 rescuers and transported to hospital. Another has some bruises and does not need to be transferred to the emergency room. The third suffers some fractures and is in excruciating pain. But he will have to wait almost an hour (at least) inside the cockpit: there are no ambulances to help him.
It happens in Cagliari. The facts date back to the evening of Wednesday 11 October. Two cars collide head-on in Viale Ciusa, near the Asse Mediano flyover. The responsibilities will be reconstructed in the local police reports. In the meantime, we need to help those who are sick.
The call to the operations center is timely. The first ambulance arrives on site at 9.35pm. One. The operators must choose: they deal with the person involved who seems to be in worse conditions. He is stabilized on a stretcher – spinalized, according to the technical terminology – and taken to the first available hospital: the code assigned is red, but his life is not in danger.
There, in Viale Ciusa, inside the passenger compartment of another car with the front part destroyed, another injured person remains. He complains, asks to be treated and calls for help.
But there is no one listening to him who can intervene. In those hours, on a normal Wednesday evening in Cagliari, there are no ambulances: all stuck in the city's emergency rooms or with crews busy with other interventions.
According to what appears from the 118 station records, the vehicle with the volunteers on board arrives 40 minutes after the event. There are those who are ready to testify that in reality the times would have been longer. But even 40 minutes, for a yellow code – as it has been classified – can be an eternity.
From Areus, the regional emergency agency that has to manage 118, they let it be known that as "chronically" happens, the emergency rooms in Cagliari are having difficulty freeing the ambulances and stretchers "as soon as possible". Furthermore, in the same time slot, "more events occurred and the Areus medical workers were also all busy".
Those in the field, from the headquarters to the last volunteer, go out of their way to help people. But apparently the blanket is too short.
