August, 11 – The nuns of Mother Teresa meet us in the center of Chisinau to show us the wounds of two homeless men, both ravaged by alcohol, in precarious health, their feet wrapped in rags. We remove the rags to uncover their feet and what we see is worse than we had expected, large ulcers, contaminated by dirt and more, so severe they look like deep second-degree burns.
We give their feet basic care, washing them with diluted disinfectant and applying medicated gauzes that the nuns amazingly brought with them along with elastic bandages. When asked about antibiotics, the nuns surprise us by pulling Augmentin out of their bag. They’ll come morning and evening to administer it.
We come back the next day and in addition to cleaning and disinfecting, we thoroughly clean the large lesions, removing dead and necrotic tissue. Then we apply the cream, medicated gauze and, finally, a wet-wrap dressing. The two homeless men can barely walk, but the nuns also brought some slipper socks, which are like the soft, white ones used in hotels to take a shower, just right for this case. It is hard to describe the severity of these ulcers. I can only say that I have never seen anything like them. The nuns thank us, but as we say goodbye we are the ones to thank them for what they do, for the dedication they give and the smiles they put on our faces. There are four them. They are young, from Poland, Romania, Kenya and India. They work in crowded cities where there are marginalized people that we often don’t even notice. I assured them that they we would come back. If not me, my colleagues from CUAMM who will replace me and take the baton in the hopes of giving a chance to those who live in the center of Chisinau but on the margins of society.
Bruno Mordini, paediatrician
