Naples: A woman dies tied to a stretcher at the Ospedale del Mare. A formal investigation is pending.

Naples - The notices of investigation are arriving—a necessary step to allow for the autopsy—in the investigation into the death of Olena, the 39-year-old woman who died after being sedated and strapped to a stretcher in the emergency room of Naples' Ospedale del Mare hospital in the Ponticelli neighborhood.

The incident has shocked public opinion, raising disturbing questions about the inhumane conditions patients in Campania's healthcare facilities often find themselves in.

But before recounting the night of shame, it's worth dwelling on everyday shame: what happens every day in the emergency room of Ponticelli hospital, where nearly two thousand admissions a day occur.

But what the hospital's management doesn't say or show are the conditions experienced by patients unfortunate enough to turn to their emergency room, where there's promiscuity and third-world organizational incompetence.

Only those who have been inside can explain it after experiencing it. Patients of all ages, side by side, with every type of illness. Left on chairs for days (because there aren't enough stretchers for everyone) waiting for medical decisions and beds to be freed up. This is the shame of the Ospedale del Mare emergency room, which no one shows and no one talks about.

The night of shame

It's the evening of September 12th. Olena, a resident of Via Foria, a wife and mother, had suffered from epileptic seizures for years. That day, she felt unwell: dizziness, loss of balance, and a growing sense of confusion. Her family decided to take her to the emergency room at Ospedale del Mare.

The wait is long and chaotic. The corridors of the Ponticelli hospital are crowded, as they are every day: over a thousand admissions daily, stretchers stacked side by side, patients waiting for hours, sometimes days, even sitting on makeshift chairs.

Olena She was taken into care by medical staff, but something went wrong. According to the reconstruction, the woman was sedated and then immobilized with restraint bandages because she was deemed "agitated" and "annoying" to the other patients. This is according to the medical records, which are now being examined by investigators.

He spent the night tied to that stretcher, amidst neon lights and a constant coming and going of sirens and voices.

The investigations of the Naples Prosecutor's Office

The file opened by the Demand The Naples police are aiming to clarify every detail. The autopsy, ordered by the prosecutor on duty, will determine the cause of death and any liability of the medical and nursing staff on duty that night.

The family, assisted by lawyer Di Pietro, filed a complaint: "Olena wasn't an alcoholic; she hadn't drunk anything. She suffered from epilepsy and was simply asking for help. They told us the situation was under control, then they told us she was dead," the lawyer stated.

On the other hand, some hospital sources speak of an "alcoholic" patient, perhaps suffering from delirium tremens, and therefore considered a danger to herself and others. However, the defense maintains that toxicology tests ruled out any trace of alcohol in her blood.
It remains unclear whether the sedative was administered according to protocol, and whether the dose used could have caused the cardiac arrest. Investigators have seized the patient's medical records and obtained initial statements from medical staff.

The justification of health workers and the reality of the emergency room

A justification leaks from the Ponticelli facility: "The containment procedure is mandatory in cases where the patient could be dangerous." But the truth, say emergency room regulars, is different.

Behind that bureaucratic formula lies the daily chaos of a facility stretched to its limits, where staff are understaffed, shifts are endless, and organization is reduced to the bare minimum.

The collapse of the Campania healthcare system

Olena's death isn't just an individual tragedy. It's the symptom of a structural disease: that of Campania's healthcare system.
Understaffed departments, unmanageable emergency rooms, endless waiting times, doctors forced to choose every day who to treat first.

The Ospedale del Mare, inaugurated as a symbol of the rebirth of Neapolitan healthcare, has become a paradigm of failure: an "excellence" only on paper, incapable of guaranteeing dignity and safety to patients.

And while the judiciary investigates this senseless death, the hardest image to erase remains: that of a 39-year-old woman, strapped to a stretcher and left to die in silence, amid the desperation of her family and the indifference of a system now on the verge of collapse.