Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, professor and political scientist, 62 years old, suffered a health crisis while speaking on stage in Cortina on December 27th. He underwent heart surgery and ended up in intensive care. In mid-January, he himself announced that he was feeling better. He then continued his rehabilitation. And today with the Corriere della Sera, he recounts the stages of his illness, saying he considers himself a survivor and that he is alive thanks to the face of Tiziana Panella, a La7 journalist who hosts Tagadà and his girlfriend for two years. "I felt three blows on the diaphragm, as if I was in apnea. As a diver, you know that when you feel them you have to resurface, it's the last warning. I realized something serious was happening. After the conference, I asked for a doctor to be called. The ambulance arrived, we went to the "Codivilla" hospital".
The two phone calls
"I was taken to Belluno by ambulance, and there I was lucky to find the head of Cardiology, Alessandro de Leo who immediately understood that mine was a dissection of the aorta. He told me two things, which I will always remember. The first: we have to do a life-saving operation. The second: it can go wrong. I was able to make two phone calls. I called my eldest daughter and Tiziana, with whom I have been for two years, trying to reassure her, while she was trying to reassure me. They took me by helicopter to Treviso".
The coma
"I remember the whole period in a coma - he recounts -. A slimy, black river, that was under my feet, like Ulysses and Achilles. I think it was Hades. The river where the dead souls are. I did not see any light, no hope other than to fight to live. Maybe when you die the feeling is that of a hug. We experience death as scary, I have never had a great sympathy for it, I have no expectations about what will come after. But the thing that surprised me is that I was not afraid. I remember seeing the roots of the trees from below, as if I was in a crevasse. And every now and then, distant voices. At one point I wondered if I was dead. I thought: I can't do it, maybe it's enough to let go and everything will pass. Death can't be much worse".
The love for Tiziana
His thoughts went to Tiziana and her daughters. "I saw her face, I wanted to see it again. I spoke with my mother and my father, who are no longer here: "Give me a hand, it's not time to join you". I opened my eyes. And I saw Tiziana who was there with me".
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