Day Hospital Hotel, the song by Cataldo Perri, doctor and patient with pancreatic cancer
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“It’s the day of poison in the veins, it comes down slowly with an acrid smell. The nurse hasn’t smiled for a long time, her hair is white but she still encourages you”. Start like this Day Hospital Hotelthe song written in a cancer ward by Cataldo Perridoctor, musician, writer and also a patient who has been battling pancreatic cancer for twelve years.
From that ward, Cataldo was able to see the sea even if it isn’t there, in the belief that even in a place of pain like a hospital there can be room for something beautiful. The video for the song comes out on November 17th on World Pancreatic Cancer Day.
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A twelve-year history of cancer
In November 2010, twelve years ago, Cataldo Perri was operated on for pancreatic cancer. After the surgery he underwent nine cycles of chemotherapy of six months each. In 2014 he was operated on for a liver metastasis and then treated with radiotherapy for a metastatic nodule to the lung. “I tolerated the therapies well and especially those based on platinum were effective in counteracting the progression of the disease”, says the doctor-patient-musician.
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The discovery of genetic mutation
Cataldo learned a year ago that he was a carrier of the BRCA2 genetic mutation which would have favored the onset of his pancreatic cancer. “I am currently doing specific oral therapy for some forms of cancer in patients with the same genetic mutation as breast cancer, ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer. Luckily, I have few side effects and, at the moment, a good tumor marker control.
Like an expiring can of tuna
But before reaching this stage, Cataldo experienced firsthand all the frustration that envelops a patient when faced with the news that there is little to hope for. “When I found out I was ill 12 years ago – he says – an oncologist had ‘sacked’ me with a pat on the back telling me it would be tough and that health statistics assigned me no more than five years of survival. As if I were a can of tuna with the expiration date”.
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Music and words as therapy
But he didn’t want to surrender to this written sentence convinced of the fact that every patient is a unique clinical story. “In addition to medical therapies – he continues – I treated myself with my great passions: music and writing. Three days after heavy chemotherapy I left for a concert in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. I would also have gone with a drip to the arm. I think my passions, integrated with pharmacological therapies, are helping me a lot”.
Getting drunk on life despite the tumor
Indeed, during the chemotherapy sessions he wrote two books, released two new records and continued to give concerts. “In short, I continued to get drunk on life,” he summarizes very effectively. “The last piece of music written in the oncological ward is Dh Hotel. Because I think you can see the sea even where there is no sea. Even in a place of pain like an oncological ward. To the many brothers, who at this moment are engaged like me against General Cancer’s troops, I feel like saying that we are not allowed to be annihilated by the condition of a cancer patient and by the thought of death because the only eternity we are allowed is not to waste our life, the our precious and unrepeatable time”.
Dial in an oncology ward
In one of the endless cycles of chemotherapy he underwent, Cataldo composed the song Day Hospital Hotel which resonates like a passionate hymn to life in spite of everything, like a heartfelt message of hope to the brothers with whom he shares the agony of this disease and, finally, as a proud indictment against men and societies that threaten everyone’s health by disfiguring the surrounding environment and poisoning the air and food.
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The music video
Federico Greco’s video was made in part with images from one of his films, “Once upon a time in Italy – Jakarta is coming”, which, due out in December, tells the struggle of doctors and intellectuals, including Perri himself, against the privatization of public health in Calabria. The Day Hospital Hotel video will be released on November 17 on the occasion of World Pancreatic Cancer Day, while the piece of music, with arrangements by Leo Caligiuri, will be on all digital platforms the following day.
“Doctor to eat, musician to live”, Cataldo Perri has published four CDs (Rotte saracene, Bastimenti, Guellarè and Calarbresh, on his collaboration with the writer Carmine Abate) and two novels (Ohi dottò and Malura). He is considered one of the greatest swing guitar performers who plays with a personal technique between tradition and innovation.
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