Claudio Andrade
08/01/2020 - 15:49
- Clarín.com
- Society
The heavy snowfalls in July in the Cordillera did not lift the spirits of the group of kidney patients who live on the South Line of Río Negro. Unlike. In the coldest and wildest area of Patagonia there is plenty of solitude, wind and extreme temperatures that plummet to 37 degrees below zero . For this handful of chronically ill people, precipitations are always the growing murmur of a fatality .
The equation is simple: the snow does not allow the combi to be transferred, which transports them to Bariloche three times a week. And if they don't dialyze in time, they die.
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Susana Fernández (63), Argentino Rucal (58), Jorge Maese (63), Bellindo Méndez (74), Carlos Bernatene (40) and Carlos Lepiante (34), from Ingeniero Jacobacci; Laurita Quidel (28), Graciela Cañumil (60) and Victoriano Matamala, from Comallo; and Marcelino Garcés (60) from Pilcaniyeu, must move from their towns to San Carlos de Bariloche.
A trip that ranges between two and three hours depending on the distance between their towns and the tourist city. The obligatory journey completely determines the rhythm of their lives .
The harshest winter in 20 years in the region ended up complicating an already tangled picture. Because when it doesn't snow, it rains or there are hurricane winds or something breaks. Patagonia in all its dimension. So, the wait and the despair. We will arrive? It is the recurring question.
Her last dialysis at two centers in Bariloche had been on Saturday, July 18. They had to return on Tuesday the 21st, but the storm did not ease and Route 23 accumulated 1.5 meters of snow .
Carlos Lepiante and Carlos Bernatene in Bariloche, where they are on dialysis. To get to the city in the middle of the snowstorm they lived an odyssey. Photo: Marcelo Martínez
A car without traction and chains could not challenge the snowy desert. Meanwhile the ticking of the vital clock continued to tick. Most of these patients are over 60 years old and are not in a position to skip a dialysis session. The forecast marked more snow and colder for the whole week , as it was met with rigorous precision.
On Tuesday, efforts began in the hospitals and municipalities of the South Line so that the sick could reach Bariloche in the shortest possible time. In the first place, the use of ambulances was ruled out: they would never exceed the snow walls of the route . The Comallo hospital ambulance left with three patients, but was quickly trapped and her driver had to return. For the same reason, the use of the Patagonian Train service was ruled out: due to its snow-covered rails, it could not operate.
Two of Jacobacci's patients broke down on Tuesday night and the mayor of the town, Carlos Toro, decided to promote a trip on Wednesday the 22nd, coordinating efforts of the three municipalities where kidney patients live , two mining companies, Vialidad de Río Negro and the 4wheelerosdelsur solidarity groups of Bariloche and Mallin Grande Aventura. An operation in which about 60 people participated, as complex as it was essential at that point in the calendar.
Two trucks left Jacobacci, one driven by Toro himself. It was 7.30 in the morning and it was 8 degrees below zero. The darkness, total. “On Tuesday we had made an attempt in a car from Ingeniero Jacobacci, to see how the road was. But after 15 kilometers we saw that it was impossible and we returned. To do those 15 kilometers we had to paddle and to return too. Not even the machines could clear at that time ”, Carlos Lepiante reminds Clarín .
It doesn't seem strange to the young man to mention that he, Bernatene and the driver stood shoulder to shoulder to clear the snow . His patient status, in his eyes, does not exempt him from the effort in an Antarctic environment. “We helped the driver and the older people stayed upstairs. If not, you can't ”, he highlights.
The road machines clearing the way for the caravan to move forward.
Lepiante is a teacher of physical education, although he is on leave due to his illness. He suffered hemolytic uremic syndrome at one year of age. His kidneys did not develop properly and do not filter toxins, he details. At the beginning of the year, his sister offered to become his donor. When they were about to travel to Buenos Aires to do their last studies, the pandemic suspended their opportunity to live normally. It is on the waiting list at INCUCAI. "You have to continue no more, then you will see," he resigned.
The first two trucks that left Ingeniero Jacobacci transported six patients and were escorted by two Roads machines that were slowly clearing the road. “ At one point I thought: we did not arrive. I don't know what could happen because some patients started to feel bad. I know that I can skip a session and I don't feel the effect as much, but others don't ”, explains Lepiante.
The caravan took three hours to Clemente Onelli, located 56 kilometers away, and another two hours to reach Comallo, another 40 kilometers. Three patients got there. Then they found the impossible sector of route 23: the “Subida de Navarro”.
“It is the bravest part! Next to it was a machine that was being put on chains because it couldn't get through. I think that if it is not for the people of 4wheelerosdelsur de Bariloche we will not pass it. They opened this part of the road and chained the trucks like a train, "says Carlos Bernatene.
The caravan, advancing at a slow pace towards Bariloche.
Bariloche's wheel lovers arrived in six vans that tied two others and turned the whole into a railway formation . With determination, paleo and low changes, the sector went up and down. "There was a lot of snow in Comallo and then a lot of mud. A dangerous mud ," says Bernatene.
"If not for the help of all these people, we don't cross. We die!"
“When we saw that a machine was caught between the Subida de Navarro and Pilcaniyeu, my head started to play badly. The psychological affected me. For me it was something catastrophic. Because none of us can live without dialysis and I was bad enough. And if it is not for the help of all these people, we will not cross. We died! There have been cases of deaths in ambulances in the past. So we had to put a machine, eight chained trucks and shovel, to cross, there was no other way, "recalls Bernatene.
Bernatene explains that her kidney problems are lifelong and that there is a history in her family. It is not listed in INCUCAI because, he indicates, he does not have the means to face a transplant . "The social work can take care of the transplant, but I do not have money for the trip, nor for the food in Buenos Aires. With these sessions I cannot work either and without work there is no money, ”he says.
"I hope these circumstances serve to show how much a dialysis center is needed."
Bernatene confesses that, while she was hitting along Route 23, her thoughts were dark . "You can not live like this. Traveling three times a week. We leave at dawn, we return to the night, tired. You don't see your family, you can't do anything. There should be a center in Ingeniero Jacobacci, I hope that these circumstances serve to show how much is needed, "he stresses.
“The most important thing here was that there were solidarity people who were sent in the middle of the storm . Those who left with us from here on the South Line and those from Bariloche who came out to meet us. Even the mayor ran one. The trucks especially were those that put together the footprint, because there was a meter of snow. The people who took the route to take us were very brave ”, concludes Bernatene.
"The people who took the route to take us were very brave"
The youngest of the group is Laurita. The young woman affirms that during the year, even with the route cleared, the trips become exhausting . "Almost always it is more than four hours and to that we must add the tiredness that dialysis leaves you, because sometimes you go wrong from there," he details.
One of the vehicles, in the middle of the snow with almost no visibility.
Quidel watched with emotion the operation of people and vehicles that were removing the snow with determination, while they accelerated the motors until gaining meters to the destination.
“A single vehicle could never have passed. Because the machines had stayed to the side or were not able to remove the snow. At the foot of a climb, not even the machine could do anything. There was no footprint, it was all snow and snow. All white. The boys got off, paddled for a while and we continued. I was also afraid that we could not continue, there are also older people who are patient. But we always keep going ”, adds Laurita.
Laura Quidel thanks the solidarity of those who helped them get from their towns to Bariloche to be able to get dialysis. Photo: Marcelo Martínez
The young woman suffered lupus at age 16 and was left with sequelae in her kidneys. In May, she had to travel to the Argerich Hospital in Buenos Aires for the first time with her mother, who offered to donate. The coronavirus also stopped her dreams and she does not know when she can resume her attempt to achieve the transplant. "Later, maybe," he says.
The caravan arrived in Bariloche around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday the 21st when the night once again hung over their heads. About 13 hours of crossing. Her transit was marked only by two colors. The black of darkness and the white of a gigantic curtain from which snow flowed and barely allowed the horizon to be seen.
The mayor of Bariloche, Gustavo Gennuso arranged for the group to settle in the Hotel Gran Bariloche , in the center of the city, until the period of bad weather passes. Three patients, one from Pilcaniyeu and two from Comallo, chose to return to their villages. The others continue in the establishment or in relatives' houses.
In the meantime, the days pass, far from their homes and their families. The forecast announces rains throughout the next week although meteorologists warn that the snows could return .
Bariloche. Correspondent
ACE
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