On June 30, 2021, the Emergency Department Training Center of Bologna got a very special gift from Gresini Racing. Through extensive fundraising, Gresini donated three emergency medical simulator mannequins to the training center. These technologically advanced training devices can simulate multiple clinical scenarios to train medical personnel to deal with many kinds of emergencies that may arise—all in complete safety. 

In February, 2021, the racing world suffered an incalculable loss when Fausto Gresini died due to complications of COVID-19. Shortly afterward, in April, Gresini’s partner in racing and life, Nadia Padovani, officially took the reins of Gresini Racing as team principal. Padovani and Gresini’s sons are also active members of the Gresini Racing team, and it's very much a family affair. Everyone involved wanted to honor Fausto’s legacy by caring for the medical personnel who worked so hard to save his life.  

“Doing everything we can sometimes is not enough to save an ill patient’s life. When I started working in the hospital wards – as a young doctor – I thought my job was to save lives. As the years went by, I understood that the goal had to give people care: to listen to them, to cry, to joke, to live even the last moments of their battle to survive at their side. This is what me and the whole medical-infirmary staff – whom I’m representing – have tried to do while remaining by Fausto’s side,” said Maggiore Hospital COVID ICU manager Nicola Cilloni in a statement. 

“But he – who for me was not only an ill patient but also a friend with whom I was sharing the passion for MotoGP – has taught us more than any of our efforts could. He taught us to remember that beyond pain, beyond sufferance, there was his team: his family, his employees, his riders… He, until his last breath, was asking about them. He was talking about them. To know that they wanted to leave us a tangible sign of all the good things he did here is helping us overcome the unsuccessful use of medical science on Fausto, as well as on all the patients we were unable to save during this pandemic. The charity effort started by Fausto and his family is a true relief for the wounds inflicted by Covid on us healthcare professionals. Our thank you will not be enough compared to your wonderfully curing [sic] gesture,” Cilloni concluded. 

“I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart all the healthcare personnel of the ICU operative unit working at the ‘Carlo Alberto Pizzardi’ Maggiore Hospital in Bologna, and in particular the primary physician Nicola Cilloni for his utmost professionalism, humanity, continuing presence and constant moral support he gave Fausto and our family during his long hospitalization due to Covid-related complications. Unfortunately, the progression of his clinical situation did not go as we all hoped,” Nadia Padovani Gresini’s statement began. 

“During his hospitalization, Fausto had expressed the wish to donate to the department to support the healthcare personnel. Me and my sons thought it was really important to carry his will forward and we immediately started working in order to create a bank account to gather all the donations in favor of the hospital and in the memory of our beloved Fausto, who gave so much to all of us and to the motorsport world,” she continued. 

“I would like to thank everyone who contributed to making possible the creation of a training and simulation room at the Maggiore Hospital, because with their donations we were able to purchase a series of computerized mannequins and classes to train the hospital personnel in patient-related emergency/urgency scenarios. This simulation room has been named after Fausto Gresini: we are all very proud and honored of it, as I think everyone who made this highly specialized area possible is. This thank you is not just from me, but also from my sons Lorenzo, Luca, Alice and Agnese,” Padovani Gresini concluded. 

Finally, Azienda USL di Bologna general manager Paolo Bordon had this statement to add upon his hospital’s receipt of this gift: 

“Stories such as the one of Fausto Gresini paint a picture of a healthcare system that looks after and is being looked after by the institutions of the territory, who wish to actively contribute to its growth and innovation. As the Local Healthcare Unit company of Bologna, we are involved on many fronts in order to ensure the best care to the ill patients, while trying to also look after everyone at their sides. Despite being painfully affected by the loss of Fausto, today we can’t be but doubly grateful to his family and to all the MotoGP fan club who wanted to take part in the memory of the beloved friend and/or colleague, while donating a breath of oxygen to the Training Centre “Gambale” of the Maggiore Hospital,” Bordon began. 

“For the USL Company of Bologna, to form such a deep bond with the family of the ones we lost represents a further achievement: despite not being able to take them away from death’s grasp, we are confident to have given a more human and intimate meaning to the word care as we put the ill patient and their community at the very center. This is the path we would like to follow on every patient’s side in order to renovate the hospital and territory healthcare systems together – step by step – by investing on training and research which can make the future of our healthcare system a better one,” he concluded. 

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