The Derthona Basket medical staff on the front line in the COVID-19 emergency
Derthona Basket and Tortona, a strong and indissoluble bond, further strengthened this season by the partnership with the Municipality and by the numerous activities carried out by the Club with its partners present in the city. A relationship, that between team and city, which continues even in this period in which the entire national territory - including Tortona - is engaged in the difficult challenge of COVID-19, which has hit Piedmont and the Tortona area hard.
Derthona Basket wishes to thank its medical health staff who are working on the front line, in these delicate weeks, to provide the best possible assistance to the most needy people: from Dr. Pia Camagna, social doctor of the Club, who is coordinating the activity of the volunteers in Tortona, to Dr. Alessandro Soldini, orthopedist, working at Voghera Hospital, to Lorenzo Benedetti, physiotherapist who continues to assist patients at the Bios-Lisino Rehabilitation Centre.
ʺA social and solidarity crisis unit has been set up in the Municipality of Tortona in which we try to meet people who have psychological and informational needs – the words of Dr. Pia Camagna, social doctor of Bertram Yachts Derthona – Right now. The requests vary from shopping, to information on hospitalized relatives, to forms to fill out. The shopping was initially done for the elderly and people in quarantine who cannot go out, but in the last period this service has also been extended to people in difficulty; in this regard, the first food collection took place on Saturday at the hypermarket and Esselunga in Tortona where basic necessities were collected. Through the Council of Volunteer Associations of which I am president, the Solidarity Market has made available its IBAN of the current account into which the contributions intended for spending for the elderly and for the food collection are donated. We also offer a transport service to people who need to travel for hospital visits. The Mayor and the Councilor for Social Policies are the guarantors of the work which, in practice, is carried out by the voluntary associations, by the people of the Civil Service and by the Civil Protection, in addition to the various Associations that converge within the Councilʺ.
ʺAlso in Voghera – states Dr. Alessandro Soldini – the hospital has largely been converted into a COVID-19 hospital. Surgery and urology have had to allocate part of their beds to the pneumology section. In the Orthopedics department, all operations have been suspended and postponed except for the very urgent and non-deferrable ones, which are the only ones still being carried out at this time. This department was also partly intended for patients suffering from respiratory problems or pneumonia. My colleagues and I also offer technical support, especially regarding the care and administrative management of patientsʺ.
Lorenzo Benedetti, the Club's physiotherapist, continues to work at the Bios-Lisino Rehabilitation Center ʺgiving support to elderly people in this difficult moment in which they do not have the possibility of receiving visits from relatives. We entertain our patients by making them do exercises aimed at both physical and psychological maintenance. We also help nurses arrange medications in alphabetical order, since they are 
continuously engaged in patient care with appropriate therapiesʺ.
Right now – comments Roberto Tava, president of Derthona Basket – we are playing the most important game, albeit off the basketball court. And Derthona fielded three extraordinary players, Pia, Alessandro and Lorenzo, to win it as soon as possible and allow us to go back to suffering for a basket suffered and not for a sick friend or relative. Today they are the Lions to cheer forʺ.
An important commitment on the part of these members of our medical staff which makes us proud and gives us hope for the future of the Tortona area and, also, of Italy. Because in this way, on a not too distant day, that basketball court and that basket - which can be seen at the end of the "Il Fatto Quotidiano" report (https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2020/04/04/ coronavirus-in-the-most-affected-Piedmont-province-the-mayor-of-tortona-deaths-more-than-tripled-coffins-placed-in-a-fridge-container/5755449/) edited by Simone Bauducco – may return to welcome cheering and happy kids again. Because now, the most important basket to score is the one that - together - makes us win this tough challenge.
