RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Ariane Rizzo worked every day to help her patients fight cancer. It was heartbreaking when her life – along with seven other doctors – came to an abrupt end. After a plane falls from the sky In Brazil.
He boarded the ill-fated flight on Friday in the city of Cascaval, Paraná state, bound for Sao Paulo’s Cuarulhos International Airport. It crashed in the city of Vinhedo, and footage of the ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop plunging into a flat spin horrified people across Brazil.
It smashed into the backyard of a house inside a gated community, becoming a fiery wreck. According to a report by Parana’s Medical Council, all 62 people on board were killed, eight of them doctors. Rizzo and at least one colleague went to an oncology conference to sharpen their knowledge of a disease that kills tens of thousands of Brazilians each year.
“They are used to saving lives and now they have lost their lives in such tragic circumstances,” Paraná Governor Ratinho Jr. told reporters in Vinhedo on Friday, adding that he had friends on board the downed plane. “It’s a sad day.”
Rizzo’s cousin, Stephanie Albuquerque, recalled in a telephone interview that the two of them played together as children. Even so, Rizzo wanted to be a doctor, and as she grew up, she became so serious about her studies that she rarely left town. Medicine called her.
“Ariane treated seriously ill people at a time in their lives when they were struggling. But Ariane was always available and did everything with so much love,” Albuquerque told The Associated Press by phone from Florida, where she now lives. “She wasn’t a doctor who would tell a patient, ‘This is your disease, take this.’ No, Arian took care of people. … She would give patients her personal phone number.
Rizzo, 34, was on the plane with her co-worker Mariana Belim, 31. The two stayed at Cascavel’s Cancer Hospital, and the institution’s statement commended them for the conscientiousness, care and respect with which they treated their patients.
“It is no wonder that compliments for both of them often reach us. Their love for their profession was very evident,” the hospital said.
Willian Rodrigo Feistler, a general practitioner who grew up in Cascavel, knew the six people who died in the crash and was particularly close to Belem, with whom he studied and maintained a 15-year friendship.
“Mariana was quiet with a melancholy personality, but very intelligent, empathetic and dedicated to her profession,” Feistler said by phone from Cascavel. “He devoted most of his life to study and clinical practice. He had already specialized in clinical medicine and completed his specialization in clinical oncology.
José Roberto Leonel Ferreira, a recently retired physician who died in a fire, was one of Feistler’s tutors during his undergraduate studies. He owned a radiology clinic in Cascavel.
“I tried cases with him on many occasions. “He was an approachable person who helped other doctors in discussing cases to arrive at a diagnosis,” Feistler said.
Brazil’s Federal Council of Medicine said the loss of the doctors has left Brazil’s medical world in mourning, and expressed its solidarity with the friends and relatives of the victims. They left Cascavel in search of knowledge as a means of providing better care to their patients, its statement said.
For now, there are more questions about the crash than answers. Metzul, one of Brazil’s most respected meteorological agencies, reported on Friday that there was heavy snow in the state of Sao Paulo at the time of the accident. Local media experts pointed to that as a possible cause, though others cautioned against jumping to a conclusion.
Two aircraft “black boxes” – One with flight data and the other with cockpit audio – were rescued. The Air Force’s Air Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center began examining them at its laboratory in Brasilia, the nation’s capital. Airports Minister Silvio Costa Filho said the center would also launch a criminal investigation. Airline company Vobas and French-Italian ATR manufacturer are helping with investigations, they said in statements.
All Brazil – but especially the loved ones of the victims – are curious to know why these people were removed from this world.
“It was not God who took my daughter; It’s not God because he chose her to save lives,” Rizzo’s mother, Fatima Albuquerque, told reporters Sunday. He attributed the downfall to profit-hungry capitalism and bureaucratic neglect.
Stephanie Albuquerque echoed her anger.
“I’m sure prosecutors will investigate,” he said. “I hope justice is served because that’s what my cousin and the other 61 deserve.”
