INEM

“INEM – Stories of limbo”

“The National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) works up every day to try to make a difference: relieve the suffering of those who are seriously ill or immediately life-threatening, trying to make that Life wins. It is not always an easy task, but in every moment, their professionals looking to give their best.

Are on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Every time the phone rings for another emergency, doctors, nurses and ambulance crews go out to respond to anyone who asks for help, Wherever the victim is. There are children who are born and people who are saved. For others, it’s the end of the line.

Here it is seen everything. Wins, losses and much, much struggle.

On the street or in the home of patients, blood and death are not what most shock. It hurts more the anxiety attack of a distraught mother with the first anniversary of the death of her daughter. Arrepia the cry of a parent to discover that his son was shot in the chest. There are expressions of sadness that does not forget. And images that are not published, so tough they are.

Still, this is an area that celebrates life. Everyday Inem makes small miracles happen, winning the race against time and against the disease, allowing people to continue to live, grow, raise a family, fall in love!”

(from 25 years of work INEM, Augusto Brázio and Rita Garcia, 2006)

——

This work is a documentary photography project about INEM (National Institute of Medical Emergency) and its daily efforts to save lives.

The project includes six printed photographs, complemented by a multimedia presentation that details each captured story.

Each photograph represents one of the reports developed in the multimedia presentation, which can be viewed below. One of the reports from this project was published in the INEM newsletter in August 2010.