NAPLES, Feb 18 (Reuters) – An Italian toddler left clinging to life after receiving a damaged donor heart, is not well enough to undergo a second transplant, a panel of specialists ruled on Wednesday, all but ending hopes the boy might survive.
The incident has sparked public outcry in Italy, raising questions about transplant procedures and accountability within the national health service.
“The mother has resigned herself to the idea that her son will not make it,” the family lawyer Francesco Petruzzi told reporters outside the Monaldi Hospital in Naples, where the two-year-old child is being treated.
“She sees that he is still alive; he hasn’t closed his eyes yet, but the best specialists have told her he cannot receive another transplant, so she has accepted that as well.”
The Naples hospital treating the boy, named Domenico, said a group of experts from major paediatric heart-transplant centres across the country had met to review the latest test results.
They determined his condition “is not compatible with a new transplant,” the hospital said.
DONOR HEART DAMAGED DURING TRANSPORT
Domenico received a desperately needed transplant in December, even though the donor heart was badly damaged on its journey from the far north of Italy to Naples.
Petruzzi has said the heart was mistakenly packed in dry ice instead of normal ice for the eight-hour trip, drastically lowering the temperature and causing extensive tissue damage. The transport box also lacked a temperature-monitoring device to warn that there was a problem, he said.
Prosecutors are looking into the incident and have placed six medics under formal investigation.
The child has been on life support for almost two months, and doctors have warned that prolonged use of the system might have compromised his lungs, liver and kidneys.
The boy’s mother, Patrizia Mercolino, said this week that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had called her and promised that everything possible was being done to try to find a compatible new heart. Mercolino also appealed to Pope Leo for help.
Petruzzi said the family wanted access to all medical records to see what had gone wrong. “If the time for hope has ended, then the time for responsibility has begun.”
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Yesim DikmenEditing by Rod Nickel)
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