A conference was held on Wednesday 12 October 2016 in Florence, at the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio to celebrate the memory of Prof. Giancarlo Berni. Representatives of the AIISF/Fedaiisf section of Florence were invited to the event. We report below a recollection by Andrea Veneranda.
The urgent emergency today, in memory of Giancarlo Berni
The invitation was not foreseen and, for this reason, it was even more appreciated: I had the opportunity to participate together with Vittorio Corti, President of the FEDAIISF Section of Florence, in the event in memory of Professor Giancarlo Berni, held on Wednesday 12 October last year, in the Salone dei Cinquecento, in Palazzo Vecchio, in Florence.
A few days after his death, on June 20 of this year, I reported in our magazine my modest contribution on this clinician whom I had the privilege of knowing well and of appreciating not only his medical competence, but also his human side. And to think that Berni was anything but an easy person.
Like all those with a strong personality, he did not hold back in affirming his convictions, being able to count both on a solid cultural preparation and on an assiduous and constant presence at the patient's bed. His calendar didn't know holidays, weekends: his collaborators know something about it, who saw him arriving at the hospital, at any hour, on board his moped from which he never separated.
And since he was demanding, first of all with himself, he did not spare himself and did not spare legitimate reprimands towards those who, according to him, did not keep up with him. This determination of his allowed him to create and direct the Urgent Emergency Department of the Careggi Hospital, after long years spent in the Santa Maria Nuova asylum, a real "front". He founded a school, projecting Tuscany to the top of public health, going beyond national borders.
It is no coincidence that a prestigious magazine such as the British Medical Journal, in an editorial signed by Caroline White and published last August, has traced a beautiful profile of the trainer. Numerous “Berni's Boys” present at the event, who took the floor and with not devoid of emotion accents recalled their Maestro, aware of the legacy he left them and of the consequent, great responsibility that they feel entirely.
Andrea Veneranda
berni_programme-wednesday-12th-october
Related news: Section Florence. I remember Professor Berni
