Since early 2020, during the first large outbreakes of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Versilia’s hospital (Camaiore, Italy) rehabilitation department has assisted the patients who deal with the most severe forms of the illness.
Surviving the acute phase of the virus for these people means going through months in the intensive care units (ICU), intubated. Rehabilitation starts as soon as possible, when the patient is still positive to the virus, and continues in the non-covid department once he is no longer contagious.
The long journey for recovery is a tough and complex one. The people who leave the ICU’s do so in terrible conditions, and generally need some kind of support to keep their vital functions. The physical scars left by Covid-19 add on to the psychological ones. The patients who have been severly ill lived through the trauma of being isolated in the ICU for months at a time, away from the loved ones and sedated.
Entering in the rehabilitation unit of the Versilia hospital and watching what three patients have to go through to get back to their previous life, means encountering the complex nature of Covid-19. The three subjects, with their personal story, unveal what is behind the numbers of the pandemic and symbolize the force of this virus which is able to leave so deep marks that it has become a boundary between the lives of us all.
