Admitted to a secure room at the San Salvatore Hospital in L'Aquila, Matteo Messina Denaro, suffering from a serious form of cancer, has been in an irreversible coma since yesterday. In recent days, hospital doctors interrupted his chemotherapy—the boss's body is too weakened to tolerate it—and first administered pain medication, then sedation. The mafia boss has stated his wishes in a living will, specifying that he does not wish to undergo aggressive treatment.
A specific order obliges doctors to hydrate him, but not to resuscitate or feed him. Later today, in the presence of his lawyer, who is also his legal guardian, the doctors will stop all the last procedures that are still keeping the former fugitive alive. From then on, it's unclear how long the patient will last. Days, hours, the hospital reports. Meanwhile, against all initial expectations of the doctors treating him, Messina Denaro has survived the night.
The 62-year-old mafia boss is hospitalized in a cell in the prison ward, assisted by pain therapy specialists.
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Despite the chemotherapy cycles he underwent while on the run, when he went by the name Andrea Bonafede, the mafia boss, who was always aware of the complexity of his illness and his dire prognosis, never recovered. Treatment continued after his capture in the Abruzzo prison, where an infirmary was set up adjacent to his cell. The mafia boss was released from prison twice for surgeries, the last of which occurred in August. Since then, by order of his doctors, he has not returned to his cell.
Realizing his end was near, interviews were authorized with several family members, including his recently recognized biological daughter, who reportedly met her father until a few days ago and is now at his bedside. Meanwhile, both the L'Aquila Local Health Authority (ASL) and the authorities, on high alert since August 8th, the day he was admitted to hospital, are organizing the follow-up to the crime boss's death and the return of his body to his family, represented by his niece and lawyer Lorenza Guttadauro and his young daughter Lorenza Alagna, recently recognized and met for the first time in L'Aquila's maximum security prison last April.
And within this framework, security measures were strengthened by the police, Carabinieri, and Guardia di Finanza, with the support of the army. Messina Denaro mockingly told the prosecutors who came to question him after his capture that if he hadn't fallen ill, he would never have been caught. This was the case with his father, the Castelvetrano boss Ciccio Messina Denaro, who died of a heart attack while on the run and was left ready for burial in the countryside.
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