NAPLES, ITALY -- Mariarca Terracciano, a 45 year-old Neopolitan nurse employed by the San Paolo hospital in Naples died after three days in a coma. She had drawn 150 millilitres of her own blood each day for four days as protest against the non-payment of her salary by her employer Asl Napoli 1. Her extreme form of protest had been filmed by Neapolitan private broadcaster, Julie Tv.
The video ended up on YouTube, going all around the world. "I'm also doing a hunger strike," said Mariarca direct to the camera. "It may seem a crazy act, but I want to show that they are playing around with the skin and blood of everyone. Seeing the blood makes our difficulties and those of other patients very clear." And it was her blood she was speaking of. Mariarca, mother of two children 10 and 4 years of age, had ceased her protest on May 3rd, the day the President of the Campania Region, Stefano Caldoro, managed to release the salaries. But it was too late for Terracciano. Now her friends remember her on the web with a page on Facebook: "I remember the struggle of Mariarca Terracciano".
Source: Repubblica.it (in Italian)
Youtube Video (also in Italian)
