They call each other “Brothers of Dust”. Health workers and firefighters with a common mission: to recover people under the rubble of disasters. Like the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria. Andrea Comelli, medical officer of Team Usar (Urban Search and Rescue) of the Areu Lombardia regional emergency emergency agency, is headed right there, in Incirlik in Turkey. The team is made up of firefighters, doctors, nurses and logistics technicians. “The primary objective for us – he explains to Adnkronos Salute – is always to be able to extract people who are still alive. Of course, these possibilities tend to decrease as time passes, but it is also true that even this morning there are save states”.
“It seems strange, but in reality – he says – in collapsed structures survival spaces are often created which are called ‘survival triangles’, in which people can somehow manage to move forward. And our hope is to reach their as soon as possible and quickly recover them”. Difficult, but not impossible, she repeats. “In the literature, survival rates tend to drop significantly after the first few days. Is there a precise threshold? No. Over 48 hours” after the disaster, “however, it is true that the survival curve tends to drop by very much. It is also true that, I repeat, the finds of those missing alive are continuing. Based on the experience we have also had in other international emergencies, the final decision to interrupt search activities is a choice of the State”, he specifies .
There is still a lot to do in Turkey. “The other evening, 2 days” after the earthquake, “there were 140 construction sites open in Turkey, that is, sites where excavations are made. They are enormous”. And, adds the expert, “we have happened to rescue people in sight even after several days”. Obviously “these are particular situations”, admits Comelli. He can affect whether they are “quite comfortable places, or the conditions of the person himself or the size of the person.” Is being small, like the various children who have been recovered from the rubble in Syria and Turkey in recent days, an advantage? “On the one hand, since we are dealing with small survival spaces, yes – he replies – But on the other, no: newborns, for example, get cold much faster and dehydration and temperature are among the greatest risks”. And that’s why the finds of surviving newborns that have hit the headlines these days are defined as miraculous.
It hurts, but there is no salvation algorithm. Unfortunately, reasons the rescuer while he is on his way to the goal of his mission, “there are no precise rules, there is a large level of indeterminacy”. Comelli knows this well, he has had interventions in various earthquakes in Italy, such as the one in Amatrice. He was among the rescuers who worked at the Rigopiano hotel overwhelmed by the avalanche in 2017, and then in 2018 on the occasion of the collapse of the Morandi bridge, and internationally for the earthquake in Albania. “Already in 1999 Turkey experienced a gigantic earthquake”, he recalls. But the enormity of this latest earthquake is striking. “The Turkish authorities – underlines Comelli – have declared it as the strongest, the biggest tragedy linked to the earthquakes. They have an important susceptibility to these events, due to the geographical position in which they find themselves”.
What will Comelli and the Lombard Team Usar expect? “We have four doctors, two doctors, two nurses and two technicians who deal with health logistics – he lists – so they are in fact the ones who put the operational team in a position to work. Each one has a team of firefighters who work on a construction site. The rotation on each construction site takes place throughout the 24 hours, basically with two 12-hour shifts. We are therefore a mixed team. When we locate a victim, we dig inside the rubble, create a path up to her and we arrive , if possible, to perform stabilization maneuvers. Then it is extracted. It is a complex, difficult job that requires adequate training. We medical workers are trained to enter the rubble, we go almost as far as the brigade. The coolest part of this activity is obviously when you manage to identify someone who is still alive.”
And then, Comelli continues, “all the frenetic work of approaching, stabilizing, recovering begins. For us it is very gratifying to be able to work as a team with the firefighters and, according to what they tell us, this feeling is reciprocated. We have learned over the years and now there is a strong harmony. That is why we jokingly call each other brothers of dust. We, in addition to the assistance of the victims, obviously take care of the assistance of the team in a deployment of this type. We become an outpatient clinic, first aid, pharmacy if necessary. It is the other important part of our mission. The best memories I carry with me? When a mission ends. Because finally we can really say: ok, we did our best”.
