Gaia, the first blind doctor in Italy: “I have been specializing for 2 years, now Tar asks me to retake tests”

“I am prevented from growing professionally and formally, and for some months now also from working as I am doing within the Graduate School. A surreal situation: it does not reflect on the consequences that certain measures have on life of a person. I don’t want to think about it tomorrow, I continue to work to push away a thought that could turn into obsessive and distressing “. These are hours of anxiety for Gaia Padovani, a 34-year-old Roman, the first blind doctor in Italy, who is pursuing her dream of becoming a psychiatrist with determination. For over two years he has been attending the specialization course and working in a ward of the Policlinico Umberto I in Rome. But now the TAR asks her to repeat the admission test (the Miur has set the date for next November 4th), a communication that arrived only with twenty days’ notice. The decision of the Council of State is expected tomorrow on the case. Gaia Padovani took the admission exam to the specialization in July 2019. The test, however, thanks to the absence of the necessary supports for people with visual disabilities like her that the ministry should have provided by law, was unable to pass it even though obtaining a fair score. Appeal presented, thanks to a sentence of the Council of State she is admitted to the specialization course in psychiatry. But the judicial process does not stop, now the new chapter that took the doctor by surprise. “I believe that this test is not feasible, there is no way to make it fair compared to the others. Then the notice of the test is irrelevant: how is it possible to take such a test if you have to study about 20 subjects in just 20 days? an exam that normally involves 5-6 months of preparation “, tells Adnkronos Gaia Padovani who, among other things, is preparing to pass between the second and third year of specialization, out of a total of 4 years. “I don’t really know what my life could be without all this for which I have fought for so many years. I cannot think that all my sacrifices are nullified due to a bureaucratic quibble. They risk taking everything away from me for nothing,” adds the doctor. “It seems absurd to me that right now that there is more need to find doctors, I am blocked”. For Gaia Padovani it has been an obstacle course since she attended the first years of university. “There were also those who, a teacher in particular, told me in front of other students to change faculty – she says – These are things that undermine self-esteem but I didn’t let myself down, I moved on. I got here and I’m not asking anyone for anything, I just want to be evaluated for what I’m capable of doing. For what I’m really doing. ” (by Sibilla Bertollini)