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On Sunday at 1:00 p.m.,

Sergio González Márquez

, 49 years old, partner and director of an advanced analytics company, appeared with his 4x4 at the entrance of the Isabel Zendal Hospital in Madrid -created to treat cases of Covid-19-, and did not stop the vehicle's engine until more than 13 hours later, at 11:30 p.m.

"Basically I was doing a shuttle from the Ifema subway to the hospital, which is about five kilometers away, so that the health workers could get to work and go home. I also took people from the hospital who stayed to sleep in hotels and some punctual service of taking those who had been working for many days to their home in

Tres Cantos

or

Aravaca

".

This is how he tells it from his home in

Alameda de Osuna

(Madrid), where he was teleworking this Monday morning.

"As soon as a meeting that I have is over, I run away again to take people to dialysis or who need to go to hospitals," he says.

Sergio is one of the 150 citizens with off-road vehicles prepared to circulate through the snow, which it is calculated have been offered in Madrid to help especially the transfer of toilets to hospitals and patients with urgent needs, such as dialysis, creating a network solidarity that has become vital in the harshest hours of the snowfall.

The SOS 4x4 association

A medical friend commented in a WhatsApp group that she had managed to get to her hospital thanks to the help of the

SOS 4x4

association

, and Sergio, although he is not part of this group, joined.

"I have an SUV because I usually ski and I have a house in Formigal and it occurred to me that I could help," he says.

He is unable to calculate the number of trips he made or the people he transported throughout this Sunday, but he did spend a deposit and a half of fuel, about 750 kilometers.

"It was impossible to stop because the demand was continuous. I didn't even get to eat, but for not eating one day nothing happens," he says.

Nacho González Barrajón

, 46, director of Telepizza in Spain and Portugal, is another of the volunteers with an SUV.

González Barrajón began last Friday rescuing vehicles with his Jeep Wrangler.

"I got home around 12 at night, pulling cars off the road, bringing people to their homes, clearing the back roads where the snowplows didn't get there," he says.

"And starting on Saturday is when we start to focus on SOS 4x4."

From a neighbor who calls you, "three children have stayed at my house because we had birthdays and the parents have not been able to arrive, to the whole issue of toilets, people who have been at work for three days and cannot return home, students who have stayed where they studied. "

'Walking Deadth', in a car version

On Sunday he spent eight hours attending to requests from the

Boadilla-Montepríncipe area

, where he lives.

"For example, I took two people who work in a center for the disabled in

Pozuelo

, one to the center and the other from the center to their home," he explains.

"And today at 11.00 in the morning I had a meeting with a couple who had a delivery scheduled for today in Montepríncipe. I had arranged to meet them in

Alcobendas

and at 7.00 they sent me a message that I had contractions and that the municipal police took them to the Infanta Sofía ".

He describes the scene left by the snowfall as "

Walking Deadth

, but in a car version."

"There are crossed buses occupying the entire road, abandoned vehicles ... it's incredible," he says.

The initiative that Sergio and Nacho joined came from the SOS 4X4 association.

"We were like 200 in the SOS 4x4 Telegram group, volunteers who help each other in case one day you get trapped, for example, in a mud, and on Saturday we see that we have 5,000 people. When people start to find out that We exist begins to ask us for help ", begins to tell how the movement emerged

Jaime Brotons

, 24, an organizer of sporting events, who is in Valencia and from there has been in charge of organizing the volunteers.

"When we see the requests, I decide to coordinate and make groups for hospitals for the transfer of toilets, especially and emergencies. I coordinate Isabel Zendal, Gregorio Marañón, the dialysis of Gregorio Marañón, Parla and southeast of Arganda del Rey," he says .

"We all give the callus"

"Above all, what we tried yesterday as more urgent was to connect the nearest subway stations with hospitals. And in the Marañón area to take dialysis patients who had not been able to receive sessions for three or four days, which is quite serious Now we continue coordinating with Summa 112 and the Social Samur transfers to dialysis and hospitals, "he says.

Among the volunteers, he explains, there are taxi drivers, administrators ... and people who have even traveled with their SUV from

Mérida

or

Murcia

.

"I only say one thing, this is Spain and I think it is shown once again that although politics and everything are not going well, citizens, when it is necessary to get to work hand in hand, we all give the call. Even 112 itself Last night they told us: Right now you are helping us to take the most serious patients to the doctors. "

The SOS 4x4 were also the ones who suggested this Sunday to the EMT, after hours of shuttling between the Ifema Metro station and the Isabel Zendal Hospital, that the road was clear enough for a special transport line to be put in place.

"Very respectful of the mask"

The first started the journey at 9:00 p.m.

"The one on the bus asked me what schedule was set, until what time the shuttle had to be," says Sergio, the volunteer with whom this article started, as a sign of improvisation under the circumstances.

From the experience, which is still continuing, Sergio is left with the gratitude of the Isabel Zendal toilets whom he has rescued.

"In the end, they thank you so much, so much ... especially those who came out were delighted. Very friendly, very respectful of the mask, most of them sat behind with the masks and the windows down. It is also a detail of respect towards to me, especially because of the hospital where they work, which treats Covid cases, because it seemed that the Covid had disappeared with the snowfall. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Madrid

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The Isabel Zendal hospital exceeds one hundred Covid patients treated and gives 43 discharges

See links of interest

  • Coronavirus

  • Snow

  • Fiorentina - Cagliari

  • Tenerife - FC Cartagena

  • Elche - Getafe

  • Real Madrid - UCAM Murcia

  • Sporting de Gijón - Fuenlabrada