14. K Syndrome was designed to resemble tuberculosis, as was its name
The respiratory disease tuberculosis is also known as Koch’s Syndrome, and it is likely the symptoms described by the doctors, as well as the name K Syndrome, were selected with tuberculosis in mind. As noted, tuberculosis was rampant in Rome during the German occupation, and its symptoms were easy to mimic. It was also easily presented as highly contagious, a desirable effect for the Italians to keep the refugees away from the Germans. When the Nazis first searched the hospital, Dr. Borromeo provided a vivid description of the syndrome, including its evident incurability, before inviting them to inspect the wards where K Syndrome patients were treated. The Germans declined the invitation.
Although Drs. Sacerdoti and Ossicini decades later claimed the development of the scheme had been spontaneous, Pietro Borromeo disputed that position, and wrote that his father, Giovanni Borromeo, had planned the subterfuge, with the aid of Father Bialek. The latter also coordinated the events within Fatebenefratelli with contacts in the Vatican. Borromeo kept partisans outside of the hospital abreast of developments. The Germans eventually located the whereabouts of the radio kept in the hospital, but Borromeo received word of the coming raid to seize it, and disposed of it in the Tiber. The Germans never found the radio, nor did they learn that the dreaded disease known as K Syndrome simply did not exist.