Matías Devicenzi (34),
the Tucuman nurse who had become known for adopting a baby abandoned by his family at the hospital where he worked,
died in the last few hours after fighting pneumonia
for several months.
Devicenzi was admitted to the Hospital del Este, in the city of Tucumán.
It was the place where he worked and where he had met the little
baby abandoned a few hours after he was born
and that he would later end up adopting.
In February of this year, a collection had been launched on social networks to raise funds and pay for some of the expenses that the young nurse had as a result of complications derived from having contracted Covid-19.
This year he had spent several weeks in intensive care.
But this week, his condition worsened severely and
he died "after fighting a lot
," according to what Gabriela D'Agata, a family friend, told La Gaceta de Tucumán.
“There is a lot of pain and anguish because we did not lose faith that he would get out of this.
Mati had a very strong heart,"
Gabriela lamented.
“I wanted to thank all the people who have helped accompany the family throughout this time.
It was really a great chain of collaboration, many people through the previous publication got in touch to help, they called people from all parts of the country even from abroad to collaborate, people with a good heart ”, he remarked.
The story that moved a country
Matias Devicenzi with Santino, the abandoned baby he had adopted
Matías was a neonatology nurse
.
In January 2017, while performing replacements at the Eva Perón Hospital in the East, he met Santino (not his real name), a baby who had been abandoned at the medical center with a difficult prognosis.
The nurse went to the plastic cradle, looked at the medical history, and saw that the baby had genetic problems, malformations, respiratory failure, and a uronephrological disease.
“I went on vacation in February.
When I returned, the first thing I did was ask about the baby and he was still hospitalized.
He was serious.
I go over to the crib, as I do with everyone because I like to talk to them and I tell him
'if you open your eyes, he took you to my house,'”
Matías told
Clarín
in an interview.
As he recounted on that occasion, he did not finish saying it and the little boy looked at him with two huge black eyes.
“I didn't think anymore and I felt that I was his father.
Many were surprised and others told me that he was crazy.
How are you going to get into something like that alone and at 29 years old!
I didn't care and I started the paperwork, ”he declared.
He signed up for the registry and then underwent a series of social interviews that were passed as he "meeted all the requirements to be a father," he added.
Santino had reached five months and his health was still serious.
He had to undergo surgery for a bladder problem.
"
I assumed that I was his father even without being.
I told him: 'here I am, you will be fine and we will be happy together, "he stressed at the time.
On the nurse's 30th birthday,
he was informed that he had been granted legal guardianship.
"I am happy. He is a normal boy, he has great strength and he admired him because he is a fighter," Matías said, when the little boy's health improved.
