Neapolitan Donates Heart to Dying Man While Getting Married in Hospital

It's true to say that the big hearts of Neapolitans never cease to amaze. But this time, a heart saved a life.

In fact, it is a donor from Naples who saved a 47-year-old man who was dying and who had decided to get married while he was intubated in intensive care. It was undoubtedly the most beautiful gift that man had received. It happened in the Cardiac Surgery department of theMolinette hospital of the City of Health of Turin, directed by Professor Mauro Rinaldi.

The story of the 'end of life' marriage is from a few days ago but now it has come out that the donor is Neapolitan. The story begins in June when the young man was admitted to a hospital in the province of Cuneo for a massive left ventricular infarction, given first aid and urgently transferred to the post-cardiac surgery Intensive Care Unit, coordinated by Dr. Anna Trompeo.

The clinical conditions worsen and it becomes necessary to implant a mechanical circulatory assistance system (ECMO) to stabilize him. The strategy works well, but problems related to the anticoagulant therapy, necessary for ECMO, which require the urgent request for a new heart.

The patient is then placed on the list for a national emergency transplant through the Regional Transplant Center of Piedmont (directed by Professor Antonio Amoroso). There is no telling when or if it will ever be transplanted.

The man had become a father a few months earlier and, fearing the worst, asked to be able to marry his 42-year-old partner, just as he was intubated in ECMO and hospitalized in intensive care. marriage, defined as 'at the end of life', is celebrated by the Civil Status Officer of the Municipality of Turin in the afternoon with balloons and red hearts illuminated by the light of the diaphanoscope.

At the foot of the bed there are no flowers but photographs of his two-month-old daughter. Next to him is the bride with a special bouquet made with colored caps from blood collection tubes.

A few hours later the report arrives from the National Transplant Center of a compatible donor and preparations for organizing the transplant begin.the donor is in Naples. A special flight leaves for the heart removal, the operating room in Turin is set up for the groom.

Outside the room, the wife anxiously awaits news. The new heart arrives in Turin 12 hours after the wedding, the transplant is performed by Professor Max Boffini of the professor's team Mauro Rinaldi, with the help of the doctor Erika Simonato and of Dr. Matthew Brown and anesthetists doctors Andrea Costamagna and Daniele Ferrero. The heart restarts perfectly, the ECMO is no longer needed: it can be removed.

After the operation, which lasted more than seven hours, the patient returns to his bed in intensive care. He is now without ECMO and with a new heart that is in perfect working order. His wife bursts into tears of joy and relief. The post-operative course is proceeding normally. The patient is extubated and awakened.

After a few days he was transferred to the'Coronary Unit of University Cardiology (direct from (Professor Gaetano Maria De Ferrari)He is currently in the cardiac surgery ward to continue his treatment.

“This is wonderful news with a happy ending for the man and the couple. Congratulations to our teams and the transplant system, which once again confirm themselves as a point of excellence for the City of Health. But even more congratulations and compliments to a man and a couple born and then reborn after the heart transplant. May this new family unit be the beginning of a new happy life together”, comments the doctor John La Valle, General manager City of Health of Turin.