“And this is really the eye of the cyclone.” “A nightmare. A nightmare.” “Lombardy for sure is one of the most advanced regions in Italy in terms of health care.” “38-year-old with severe respiratory distress. And immediately, in the next two, three hours we see 10, 8, 9 patients exactly with the same clinical presentation.” “Every single square meter is occupied by beds, every single aisle is filled up by beds. And you can hardly recognize where you normally work.” “The gastroenterology ward is not there anymore. Internal medicine is not there. Neurology has been replaced. Doctors from other specialties have been called to do shifts.” “We had seven I.C.U. beds and now we have 24.” “As many as 5 to 10 percent of the severe cases and of deaths are actually among the health care personnel.” “We forget to eat, we forget to drink, and we keep on working.” “I’m far away from my family since Feb. 19.” “The worst is somebody dying in the isolated ward asking for the wife, the husband for the last hours of their life and having no chance to have anybody around and dying on their own.” “So the problem is that now we don’t have any intensive care beds anymore. We have to intubate, put on a helicopter and transfer to another region, actually, because in the region all the intensive cares are full.” “Prepare more intensive care beds, get more devices for mechanical ventilation. Do the swab to everybody within the hospital and be aware that somebody will not make it anyway.” “We try to give our best to win not only the battle, but win the war, finally.”