Claudio Andrade
07/24/2020 - 13:06
- Clarín.com
- Society
In the worst winter in 20 years in Patagonia , a group of 10 kidney patients from three locations on the Río Negro South Line were isolated and therefore prevented from receiving their inescapable dialysis treatment in San Carlos de Bariloche. The patients were met with a “perfect storm” made up of the impregnable storm and the restrictions of the coronavirus quarantine that have further limited the always difficult communications in a remote area in the south.
The Mayor of Ingeniero Jacobacci , the most important town in the area with about 7,000 inhabitants, Carlos Toro, decided to get on this Wednesday to a 4x4 in the municipality and transfer patients to the Dialysis Center in Bariloche, with the collaboration of a group of wheel lovers, officials and companies.
Normally the trip would not have taken more than three hours because between both towns there are 200 kilometers, but the climatic conditions, with white storms, temperatures that have reached 23 degrees below zero and snow “walls” of 1.5 meters high, turned the journey in a life or death mission for all its protagonists.
The crossing was 23 degrees below zero and walls of 1.5 meters of snow.
The South Line is the most deserted and unpopulated area in the province. Most of its inhabitants live in places, among sheep and goats, surrounded by a landscape as impressive as it is wild . Winters are harsh and the roads that link them to the urban centers of the Cordillera become intractable at this time of year.
Kidney patients from Ingeniero Jacobacci, Comallo and Pilcaniyeu usually travel by day in a combi every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to the Dialysis Center in Bariloche.
Due to the brutal bad weather front, Route 23 has been closed since the beginning of this week. National Roads machines operate to the extent that conditions allow.
As the hours passed, the patients began to understand that they would not be able to get to Bariloche with the regular vehicle, if there really was any chance of going down the road.
One of the trucks that participated in the mission to help 10 kidney patients.
The blood contamination process is swift and one of the residents revealed symptoms of general malaise . Aware of the problem, Mayor Toro took steps at the provincial level. His idea was to use a formation of the Patagonian Train that connects Viedma with Bariloche. Toro was alerted that the railroad exhibited 1.5 meters of snow in some sectors and that there was a probability of derailment. The formation had been inactive since March, when the coronavirus quarantine started.
Time was pressing. Toro and his people decided to get to Bariloche through route 23 in 4x4 trucks in an operating complex that included agents and machines from Vialidad Nacional Río Negro, the 4wheelerosdelsur solidarity groups from Bariloche and Mallin Grande Aventura from Ingeniero Jacobacci, officials from the municipalities of Ingeniero Jacobacci, Comallo and Bariloche, teams from the province's Ministry of Health, the CTC road company and the Gold and Aquiline mining companies. In total, around 60 people joined the dangerous adventure that lasted 13 hours to link just over 200 kilometers .
By caravan. 60 people participated in the mission organized by the Mayor of Jacobacci.
“We try to find different solutions, such as the Patagonian Train that ultimately fell. There were communication problems, bureaucratic issues, the difficulties of the climate, isolation, so we said come and go . We got into the trucks because these people can't wait and we die, "Toro explains to Clarín . "It was possible because there was coordination between the different parties, a lot of logistics involved. In each section, people, machinery and more trucks were added. Between all of us we were clearing the route that had in some sections a meter of accumulated snow . It was shovel and shovel to be able to advance. Although we took 13 hours, the patients were always safe and calm, "he adds.
The journey began in Ingeniero Jacobacci at seven in the morning in two vans carrying six passengers. Three others would join the caravan at Comallo and one last at Pilcaniyeu. From there to Bariloche. In total, 200 kilometers of snow and Antarctic cold. Between Ingeniero Jacobacci and Comallo there are 90 kilometers, but the stretch that should have taken 1.30 hours lasted six long and difficult ones.
Under the snow. It took 13 hours to do 12 kilometers.
“ The route had snow walls. The problem is what they call flying snow , because it is forming these walls that are not punctual accumulations but cover everything, ”says Fabián Ñancucheo, from the Mallin Grande Aventura group, who was part of the journey.
“ There were no heroes here. Those of us who are are people who wanted to help and that's it. We believe in solidarity between people. We were so focused on getting there that I don't think we even noticed the bad weather. It seems to me that he even accompanied us a little. The problem was the snow and you had to shovel at each step to get the trucks out, "he details.
At noon in Comallo, the group took advantage to eat something and rest. Three other patients, two trucks, and a road machine were added to the growing row. At times on Route 23 any sign of a driveway below or in the vicinity was lost. One Way. The vehicles moved blindly for miles on a white cape and under a threatening gray sky.
"We are going to get there anyway," had been Toro's slogan that morning.
In the route. Roads machines cleared the way.
The caravan left Comallo with final destination to Bariloche, after passing through Pilcaniyeu, where the last patient in the chain was waiting for them. A 110-kilometer journey that took them around seven more hours of pure travel.
In Pilcaniyeu the group 4wheelerosdelsur joined to meet the final kilometers, no less difficult for that. The caravan was made up of eight 4x4 trucks. “If I hadn't been driving, I wouldn't have been calm. It happens to me with the people of the places too, I like to see them, to know that they are well. You have to understand that driving in this area is dangerous in winter , you have to have some knowledge ”, explains Mayor Toro, a training teacher and a lover of steering who competed in Safari on the Track in other times.
Originally, there were eight kidney patients who had to travel from Ingeniero Jacobacci, but a 70-year-old grandfather refused to get into the vehicles. His intention was to go and return on the same day. An impossible in this framework. “We couldn't convince him, the other neighbors, the patients, went to see him, we talked to the people at the hospital, nothing. He did not want. I don't know what we are going to do because a day or two is going to have serious problems ”, explains Toro.
The mayor of Bariloche, Gustavo Gennuso, arranged for patients to spend these weeks of bad weather at the Gran Bariloche hotel in the town.
Bariloche. Correspondent
ACE