Little Domenico's heart had apparently already been removed before the Monaldi Hospital team verified the condition of the organ destined for transplant, which had arrived from Bolzano. This is one of the key points of the testimony given to the prosecutor on February 24th by a specialized nurse (a perfusion technician) present in the operating room on December 23rd, the day of the surgery.
“In my experience with transplants, it was the first time I saw an empty chest,” the witness reported, reconstructing the phases of the operation after the arrival of the new heart.
“The container arrived closed”
Prompted by the prosecutor's questions, the nurse timed the organ's arrival: "The closed container arrived a few minutes before 2:30 PM." According to her statement, after "about 5-6 minutes," Dr. Farina entered the room, and then the container was opened.
It was at that moment that, according to the story, the team realized that "something was wrong" and that "Domenico's old heart was already on the table."
“Cardiectomy while the container was not yet opened”
The witness then added a passage deemed relevant by the investigators: "I can confirm that Dr. Oppido was completing the cardiomyocardial surgery when the container was not yet opened." Hence the previously reiterated observation: "It was the first time I had seen an empty chest."
In comparison with a previous transplant, reportedly performed in 2017, the same nurse explained that she had observed a different procedure: the cardioectomy began after the surgeon had examined the donated organ, also to check for possible damage during transport or removal.
“They told me: it's all frozen”
From her vantage point in the operating room, the nurse clarified that she hadn't directly witnessed the container being opened, but had received the information from a colleague: "It was all frozen." At that point, according to the story, she replied, "Then it's better if you keep yours," to which she replied, "But he's already removed it," because the old heart "was already on the scrub nurse's table."
Thawing attempts and ECMO
During the reconstruction, the attention in the room would have been focused first on extracting the bucket from the container and then on the maneuvers to defrost the organ: "It took about 20 minutes."
Once extracted, Dr. Oppido attempted to "fix" the problem using what is known in the operating room as a "squirt gun," described as a large syringe, to thaw it with water. Then, according to the testimony, he took the heart in his hand, saying, "This won't even make a beat." After the implantation, and after verifying the new heart's lack of electrical function, "the patient was placed on ECMO," the witness concludes.
Changes and revisions to this article
- Article updated on 28/02/2026 at 16:28 PM - Content structure updated
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
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