It was an emotional day in the European Parliament on Monday, when a surprise meeting took place between the famous migrant doctor and MP Pietro Bartolo and an Eritrean woman who survived the tragic October 2013 shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa. The woman had been left for dead by first responders but was then miraculously saved by Bartolo.
The last time Pietro Bartolo was this close to Kebrat, he was on the pier in Lampedusa trying to save as many lives as possible. She had been left for dead on a fishing boat among dead bodies, already sealed in a black body bag, like nearly all the people who were recovered from the sea on that tragic October morning.
Seven years later, they were standing face to face, this time with an embrace and smiles.
It was an emotional day in the European Parliament on Monday during a surprise meeting between the renowned Lampedusa doctor, now an MP in the European Parliament, and one of the survivors of the October 3, 2013 shipwreck, when a boat full of Eritreans overturned off the coast of the island's Cala Croce beach.
Of the more than 500 people aboard the boat, only 155 were rescued. A total of 368 dead bodies were recovered, while some went missing forever.
'I didn't cry only because I held it in'
The meeting was organized by the October 3 Committee, the association that brings together survivors of the shipwreck, as part of the "Seeds of Lampedusa" project. The project involves about 60 students in schools in Italy and Europe who come together to reason over human rights, migrants, and refugees, and not borders and barriers.
Kebrat and Bartolo had met once before in recent years, but never like this, in a surprise meeting, which brought everything back.
"The only reason I didn't cry was because I held it in," Bartolo said, still emotional over the meeting. "These are the most rewarding moments, after the many terrible things and the many atrocities that I've had to see, there are wonderful moments like this one with Kebrat," he said.
'It wasn't over, for Kebrat'
On the morning of October 3, 2013, Kebrat was recovered at sea by Domenico Colapinto, a Lampedusa fisherman who saved dozens of people. However, he never recovered from what he experienced when so many others, drenched in oil, literally slipped through his fingers and sunk to the bottom of the sea, and he wasn't able to save them.
When Bartolo encountered Kebrat, he said she had already been zipped inside a body bag. "I was only supposed to confirm the death," he said. "When I took her wrist in my hands, I had the sensation of feeling a heartbeat. So, I waited still, at least one minute, and I felt another -- feeble, really weak -- and I knew she was still alive. We did everything we could to bring her back to life and after a while her heart started to beat," Bartolo said.
He said at that moment on the pier, he began shouting, "she's alive, she's alive", and then rushed to save her. "It was a race against time -- the clinic, the first aid, the airlift by helicopter to the nearest intensive care unit. It wasn't over, for Kebrat," he said.
At the meeting in the European Parliament, Kebrat was dressed in a black leather jacket, her eyes full of life, when she saw Bartolo and at first froze, disoriented. Then she began to cry and she embraced him, overcome with emotion.
Kebrat now lives in Sweden and has three children, but she never forgot and can't forget. She told her friends at the October 3 Committee that she's never been able to. "Even today, when I give my children baths, I see myself again on that boat and I see the people sinking to the bottom," she said.