Cristiane Clavé was at Kiss nightclub on the night of the fire – Personal archive The smile on her face does not show the internal marks of one of the survivors of the fire at Kiss nightclub, in Santa Maria, ten years ago. Cristiane Clavé, 36, from Rio Grande do Sul, was at the nightclub to celebrate a birthday and, on that dramatic night, she lost 15 friends. With no visible scars, Cristiane did not need to be hospitalized, but a persistent cough made her seek medical attention two days after the tragedy. “I had tests because my cough didn’t go away and, as a result, an internal burn was found, in the lung. That’s how I started the treatment at the Integrated Center for Assistance to Victims of Accidents (Ciava) and to this day I follow up with the pulmonologist. physiotherapy until the end of last year, now I’m able to do swimming and other physical activities”, says Cristiane. “The treatment will last a lifetime. Every three months I return to the center for a series of tests.” Ciava is a nucleus of the University Hospital of Santa Maria (HUSM), created after the tragedy at the nightclub. The hospital was the first point of care and understood that it would need to bring together several professionals so that the treatment was adequate for the victims. The center assisted 602 victims of the fire in a multidisciplinary team with pulmonologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, social workers, psychologists, nurses and others. Currently, 25 patients who were at the nightclub the night of the fire are followed by the center. According to Cristiane, Ciava’s professionals provide careful and fraternal care to patients. In Cristiane’s assessment, many physicians learned to deal with the situation of the victims and adjusted the treatment to individual needs. “The first professionals who treated me treated me like a daughter. One of the doctors explained everything that was happening to me, what procedures were being performed. They told me that what was happening was also something complicated for them because, until then, no one had gone through for a similar situation. Even the medication was adapted over time, as we did tests, many exams, x-rays – everything to assess whether there was a need to change the dose of any medication”, recalls Cristiane. Movement near the Kiss nightclub, shortly before the fire – Personal archive of Cristiane Clavé Drama She says that she was in front of the stage where the band was playing and, shortly before the fire started, she left to go to the bathroom with a friend. On her way back, she saw smoke and what she thought was a mess. When she understood the seriousness of the situation, she tried to leave the nightclub covering her eyes, mouth and nose, but the toxic smoke reached her lungs. “I didn’t think it was a fire, it looked like a fight. Soon after, I saw the stage on fire and a guy trying to put it out with an extinguisher. As I went to the door, the smoke entered through the air conditioning system and reached the door before us. So when we got to the exit door, the smoke was already there. It was black hot smoke, and that’s what hit my lung, because there was no fire [por onde passei]”, he recalls. “I stayed a short time [envolvida] in the smoke, just on the path between the stage and the exit door, even so the damage was serious.” For the gaúcha, the psychological trauma is one of the biggest weights of the night of the fire. The tragedy caused the death of 242 people and even Today, no defendant has been held accountable. “Beside me were five girls, called Cinderellas. All died. I do treatment with a psychologist and a psychiatrist, but I can’t forget. There isn’t a day that I don’t remember what I went through. Now, for example, even if I don’t look at the calendar, my body seems to know it’s coming. [a data]. For three weeks now, I’ve been waking up at the same time every day, without an alarm clock. It was at the time that the fire was happening”, he described. “I lost my memory a lot, which disturbs me on a daily basis, but from that day, I remember everything, every step I took”, he added. Cristiane says who keeps the memory of what happened in honor of friends who lost their lives and who speaks on the subject to warn the authorities not to allow another accident like this. “Today I speak to give a voice to those who can no longer speak. I have a bruised lung and heart. Many times, I can barely walk because it makes me short of breath, but the worst is the feeling. The sadness of having lost people and the feeling of not being able to go back and save a friend who was a hero, he had already left and came back to help other people. It was difficult, but people have to learn so that it doesn’t happen again.” Ciava The physiotherapist Anna Ourique arrived in Santa Maria three months after the tragedy to help care for the victims of the fire and, ten years later, she continues to work at the center. Caring for survivors who had severe burns was a challenge for health professionals – HUSM/ Divulgation “[Naquela ocasião], the hospital began to receive patients returning from hospitalization in Porto Alegre, especially those who had been burned, since there was no center for burn victims in this city. These patients needed further rehabilitation, many had smoke inhalation problems and severe breathing issues. In addition, we had those with sequelae of burns and, we know that, when left untreated, they adhere to the skin and impede people’s movements, taking away all functionality, ”he explained. The workload and number of patients were challenging for frontline professionals in care. The demand made the team look for ways to deal with the critical situation. “In the first moment after the tragedy, I already knew that I would have a very challenging job because there were many patients to attend to. In hospitals, we receive many patients, but never at the same time, but in that situation, we received more and more patients and having to attend to all of them at the same time. It was both a professional and a personal experience that brought us a lot of growth. We had to study a lot, ”he pointed out. According to the physiotherapist, the emotional aspect is also impactful for health professionals. “The patients came with a very intense psychological load. There were victims who went with friends to the club and all of them died. Others have lost siblings. The physiotherapist is the closest professional, because he sees the patient more often. Often, that victim talks more with us than with other professionals on the team. So it was a challenge because we had to stay strong to support these patients, who are all very young,” said Anna. Legacy In the assessment of the superintendent of the University Hospital of Santa Maria, Humberto Palma, Ciava is a legacy of the drama experienced by the population of Santa Maria. The center helped with the care of victims of the attack on the Gente Inocente day care center, in Janaúba, Minas Gerais, and of fires in Portugal. “There’s no way to erase the pain”, laments the superintendent of the University Hospital, Humberto Palma – HUSM Press Release “There’s no way to erase the pain. There’s no way to erase the feeling. Even if we don’t have a direct bond, a relative, we feel this pain. However, based on that, we were able to create something that could help people, and Ciava performs this function, and this was the great merit that the hospital achieved: having the strength to collaborate with society”, emphasizes Palma. University Hospital of Santa Maria became a reference. – HUSM/Disclosure With two books published, the center disseminates the protocols adopted with patients to other states and conducts online and face-to-face training. According to Palma, the perspective is that the knowledge acquired by the center is passed on to other university hospitals managed by the Brazilian Company of Hospital Services (Ebserh), of which the University Hospital is part. “The idea is that the University Hospital of Santa Maria transfers knowledge so that other university hospitals can have teams with enough know-how to not have to run after that moment [pós-acidente], so that they are prepared and able – both technically and emotionally, in addition to physical resources – to provide the necessary support. Accidents, unfortunately, tragically, happen, and we, within the function of health care, have to be prepared, “he says.
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