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.