Giuseppe De Donno, the medical symbol of the battle for hyperimmune plasma who saved many people during the first months of 2020, leaves the Carlo Poma hospital to become a general practitioner.
It will be active in the municipality of Porto Mantovano, where there is already a line of people waiting to meet him, with an affection that was expressed several times last night, during the live Facebook of the mayor of Curtatone Carlo Bottani.
Together with him, Raffaello Stradoni, general manager of the ASST of Mantua and Roberto Mari, president of the municipal council of Porto Mantovano.
For months there had been rumors about the doctor’s fatigue, who had entered the Respiratory System Diseases department of the hospital the same year as his graduation and remained there until the position that, in 2018, led him to head the Pneumology facility. There, we had seen him fight against Covid 19, together with other doctors with whom the experimentation on the use of convalescent plasma was conducted together with the Policlinico San Matteo in Pavia, with a solidarity competition by donors to offer the precious blood component. .
An experience that De Donno last night defined “dramatic, where our resuscitation and intensive care have played a very important role“. In reality, despite the conspiracy that saw a profound disillusionment behind this choice, the doctor appeared serene under the mask, saying that “after 27 years at Carlo Poma I am facing an epochal change in my professional activity. I decided to get involved, to try to change, I have always had a great desire to get closer to the territory. 20 years ago I had home respiratory assistance, now this wonderful opportunity has arisen and I have seized it, the link with the Poma hospital will remain strong ”.
“I will have many things to learn – continued the doctor, I ask every person to have the patience with me that you have with a novice”. On 5 July, Dr. De Donno will be operational but the wait is already long and there are many people who go to the counters in via Trento to ask for him.
Meanwhile, the municipal administration expresses great satisfaction with the progress of vaccinations, which as Roberto Mari reported “are proceeding quickly, we have administered the first dose to 53.5% of the target population. To date there are only 10 positive citizens ”.
After the experimentation, Giuseppe De Donno had made silence fall, he had even disappeared from social networks (where the group I am with Dr. De Donno is more active than ever and has turned into a debate agon): we recall the Nas phone call to the primary to ask for information on the case of the pregnant woman treated with hyperimmune plasma. And he replied “they won’t discourage me” declaring on Facebook “The hyperimmune plasma has allowed us to improve even more the results, it is democratic, of the people, for the people. No intermediaries, no interests, just a lot of study and dedication. Above all it is safe, no adverse events, no side effects ”. Then, the disappearance and the attribution of the national experimentation on hyperimmune plasma not to him but to the university hospital of Pisa, where Francesco Menichetti, head of infectious diseases at the Cisanello hospital had coordinated the so-called “Tsunami Project” with 474 people called to test the treatment and numerous controversies. After the appeals for the search for donors, in the summer, the doctor had spoken of a setback of the project, due to “bureaucracy and divisions for which the Italian research has lost an opportunity”.
Then, hyperimmune plasma in Italy has never been heard of again. In April 2021, De Donno’s convalescent plasma appeared in the US guidelines to treat Covid 19, as reported by Affaritaliani.
Now, the people’s doctor returns to the people.