Lessons learned
In the post-COVID era, the forced incorporation of uncertainty in our
lives implies the need to make decisions day by day based on information
that we lack, or that is not conclusive enough to make a good decision.
We will not be able to depend on certainties - we must be open to
learning through personal effort and by strengthening cooperative work.
The opportunity to share experiences with colleagues and experts from
other countries and institutions has been very enriching and has
enabled, on many occasions, the basis for decision-making to have been
the experience of others. This was not applicable for Spain due to the
government’s lack of foresight, since the correct decisions were not
made on time with the information from Italy. In contrast, the Spanish
experience has been very useful for our Latin American colleagues, to
whose countries the pandemic has come somewhat later and who have been
able to anticipate and foresee situations based on what was reported by
Spanish colleagues in various joint online forums on ECMO therapy that
have unfolded these past months. It is not about reinventing the wheel
in each country; it is enough to learn from experience and take
advantage of the knowledge generated by those who have already gone
through similar situations in our environment.