Unstable Immobility

The project “Unstable Immobility” narrates a health issue I had to face and I am still experiencing. One night, after a home accident, I found myself in the emergency room, diagnosed with elbow dislocation and bone fracture. Doctors wrongly decided to take a conservative approach resulting to permanent disability. This led me to a private clinic undergoing successfully a difficult surgery. However, during my hospitalization I contracted a nosocomial infection. After being discharged and during the postoperative care, the infection caused severe problems leading to an urgent two-hour surgery, so that the infected area could be treated. Finally, I ended up being 45 days in hospital undergoing 19 consecutive surgeries. Lying on the surgical bed while recovering from anesthesia I was informed that I had developed sepsis and my arm’s amputation was almost certain. During the rest of my stay I had to be quarantined whilst everybody else visiting me had to wear mask, gloves and apron. My arm was kept artificially alive without muscles, tendons and bone parts while the infected areas had to be filled with sponges until the transplant surgery could take place. Under these circumstances, I began to photograph with my iPhone inside the hospital room and later on at home and outdoors giving birth to these diptychs, presenting all the different apprehensions that I have experienced throughout this time and probably somebody might have experienced in a similar situation: Moments when you cannot understand what’s really going on; Various fears you go through until you accept the truth; The way the family and friendly environment deal with the incident; their reactions, helpful or not, because of their anguish and sorrow; The reconciliation with the arm’s new image; The public reactions in a discriminate society; The painful process of rehabilitation as well.