THE EMOTIONS OF CHILDHOOD CONDITION FUTURE CHOICES.

Referring to what was said in ancient times, the sign of a childhood event is like a trace in fresh concrete, in the person who lived it will remain indelible for life:

it will condition, for better or for worse, the choices that the individual will face in the path of his or her existence.

Precisely in these days when we are witnessing continuous scenes of destruction and bombing in various war scenarios, reflections that arise from childhood memories emerge in me.

If the emotions for dramatic events not experienced in the first person, are deposited in the depths of childhood memories, we can understand and imagine how terrifying and upsetting it is for those who suffer at an early age due to injuries, both physical and psychological, to survive in living conditions without indispensable sources of sustenance.

Is there still hope?

I was a young student who approached the world of science and medicine with a lot of enthusiasm, with the hope of being useful in the care and assistance for suffering people.

I embarked on this course of study driven by a memory that had indelibly marked my childhood: I was a child, when I discovered the reason that caused a strange way of walking of a dear uncle of mine. Both of his legs, below the knee, were wooden prostheses! They had been amputated due to the explosion of a grenade, which penetrated the house during the bombings of World War II. At twenty…, on his birthday!

The living conditions in those country towns, in those dramatic days, made the consequences of the injuries suffered more seriously: in fact, the boy himself had been hit by shrapnel, but transport to the hospital came with makeshift means only a couple of days later. All that time without treatment, had caused the development of gangrene.

Finally, while he was in hospital, another explosion occurred, which caused several civilian casualties, including the two sons of the surgeon who had operated on him. This exceptional doctor, although overwhelmed by his own pain, continued to intervene on the wounded without ever stopping.
Now that I am a doctor and no longer young, I am saddened by any news of casualties any war conflict, especially when I think of the extreme conditions in which civilian populations find themselves. This is even more jarring if we consider the important scientific discoveries that allow the development of both extraordinary therapies and innovative aids, such as e.g. the mental command for the tools of help for completely paralyzed people.

Should we therefore resign ourselves and stop hoping that wars and destruction will end, remaining helpless spectators of these infinite sufferings?