Those experienced at the Franchi were moments of pure terror and general disbelief when Edoardo Bove, Fiorentina midfielder, collapsed alone on the ground in the 17th minute of the match against Inter. And today’s edition of Republic – Florence reconstructs the minutes immediately following the player’s transport to the ambulance.
First of all, for example, Bove was defibrillated by the healthcare workers present on the emergency vehicle, before arriving at the Careggi hospital in which – we read – the class of 2002 was already conscious. The mother is the first to arrive. Then, a few minutes later, the father. He gets out of the car running, his jacket clutched in his hands and his disoriented gaze turned to the emergency room lights. “I’m Bove’s father” he can only say, before crossing the cordon of officers guarding the hospital entrance. A few minutes pass and the sister and friends rush over. His teammates and Fiorentina managers, who shortly before had seen him collapse on the Franchi grass. A suspended silence, no words, but the faces tell of the anguish of those moments.
Time passes and a car arrives and stops in front of the officers and a man asks to go up the ramps intended for ambulances: “I have to download the data from the footballer’s defibrillator”. When the first bulletin is released, which excludes acute damage to the nervous and cardio-respiratory systems, faces seem to become a little more relaxed. “One of us,” says a fan almost softly, with modesty. The players stand aside, away from the cameras, going back and forth in small groups. Another fan observes the scene from a distance, with the air of not wanting to disturb: “He’s a boy, he’s only twenty-two years old, he needs to recover. We’re all with him.” Yet another fan, Fabio, says: “We were at the stadium, it was a terrible moment, in a full stadium for what was supposed to be a day of celebration. These are things that touch you, the hope is that he recovers soon.”