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Carlos Lariño , a doctor at Deportivo de La Coruña for almost 15 years, very graphically defines how his sudden leap from football to the first health line was, when the coronavirus crisis broke out: "From Disney to war" . From the cartoon world that is the elite sport, working with young, handsome, strong, wealthy and almost always healthy patients, to the harsh reality that the disease has created. With the ball stopped and the teams under cover at home, it didn't take long for him to change his jacket suit for his protection suit.

“I had a need to be useful. I was at home hand over hand and I said to myself: 'what am I doing here with the one who is involved' ». He called old friends from the hospital in A Coruña , where he had resided, and they quickly assigned him a job. "Come here immediately," they asked. His destination, publicly run nursing homes. Lariño was enrolled overnight in a control and monitoring unit of these senior centers, which in many places have become unbeatable sources of infection and death.

Fortunately, the situation here has not been as ugly as in other places. We had a week of advantage, which suited us very well, "he admits. In fact, his definitive impulse to volunteer was the news from his acquaintances in Madrid, that horror that has come to Galicia in a softer way.

Lariño, a family doctor specialized in sports, spent years in the Emergency Department of the Hospital de La Coruña, an intense period that falls short of what he has experienced in recent weeks. With 72 residences and almost 4,000 seniors to control, work shifts have stretched from dawn to dusk, with short stops for lunch and others to keep video calls with the players of his club, training everyone in confinement. The sports doctor decided to leave the house and rent a flat to avoid contagion in his family.

A pennant from Depor

"For now I have tested negative, I have been lucky," he confesses with a smile, unable to hide the pride and satisfaction that comes from participating in the fight against the pandemic. "You are going home very wide." He, in the review of these frantic weeks, prefers to stay with the good times that affect the holes of drama that shake the health sector daily. «You discover the importance of very simple gestures with the elderly, such as a caress or a loving word. And everything under the protective suit, but they do not care. They are afraid. And they really appreciate it. They are isolated, without their own and, in many cases, quite confused, "recalls Lariño, an expert now in preparing video calls in the rounds of residences. "It is a gift for them."

Discreet in this role, a few days ago his partner discovered the blue and white shirt before two elderly women, sisters-in-law who, despite the contagion of one of them, wanted to remain confined together in the same room. «One had a Deportivo pennant on the wall. He hugged me with incredible strength. He was excited that I was the team doctor. He also asked me to save the category, ”says the doctor, concerned about that relegation position where his team was nailed when the Second Division was suspended in early March.

Other visits are much harder, upon discovering that there are absences. "You always miss someone. At least we are trying to make them die in the most dignified way possible, "he explains, as calls from his club come into his cell phone. His schedule is recharged as the days go by and the return of football looms. He intends to continue combining both tasks as much as he can, always pending the care of a staff (that of Depor) who looks suspiciously at the plan that LaLiga has designed to reactivate football. “There are players who are afraid of catching it, it is logical. The most veteran ask more than the young, "says Lariño, who shares the skepticism of most of the medical cadres of the First and Second teams.

Few clubs would have suffered more than his, in the case of not being able to play again. The threat of relegation to Second B frightens the entire city. Lariño understands the interest in activating football, due to its financial viability, but suspects that the plans will collide with the harsh reality of the virus. In his opinion, a contagion will be "impossible to avoid" , even under the rigorous LaLiga protocol, now being studied by the Ministry of Health. Yesterday, Deportivo received the PCR tests, which it does not know now when it will be able to perform its footballers.

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  • Coronavirus
  • Deportivo de la Coruña

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