Naples – Not a high-tech medical bag, capable of ensuring a constant and monitored microclimate, but a "common" rigid plastic container. This is apparently the vehicle used to transport the life-saving heart of a child who underwent emergency surgery on December 23 in Naples.
A hope shattered by a series of errors that investigators are now examining: the organ, in fact, arrived in the operating room irreparably damaged.
This is the disturbing detail emerging from the investigation conducted by the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office. In recent days, the Carabinieri of the NAS (National Anti-Mafia Unit) in Naples seized the incriminating container, adding a crucial piece to the reconstruction of a dramatic story.
The fatal mistake: minus 80 degrees
The crux of the investigation, however, appears to lie not only in the rudimentary nature of the box used, but also in the material chosen for thermal preservation. According to initial reports, the container was not filled with traditional ice (necessary to maintain the organ at a suitable temperature for ischemic preservation), but with dry ice.
A choice that would have proved fatal: dry ice reaches temperatures approaching -80 degrees Celsius. This extreme cold would have literally "burned" and frozen the heart tissue during the journey from Bolzano to Naples, rendering it unusable or at least compromising its vital function.
Cross-investigations on the Naples-Bolzano axis
The investigation is now moving along a dual geographical track. While in Naples, the NAS, coordinated by prosecutor Giuseppe Tittaferrante and deputy prosecutor Antonio Ricci (Section VI), is focusing on the seizure of the materials and the arrival procedures, attention is now shifting to the North.
The Trento NAS, responsible for the Bolzano area, are reconstructing the preliminary stages of the harvest. On December 23, several medical teams from various parts of Italy were present in the South Tyrolean city for a multi-organ harvest.
The military will have to determine who physically obtained the dry ice on site and, more importantly, who was responsible for checking the container before the Neapolitan team departed for Campania. It remains unclear whether there was a flaw in the verification protocols, which, in such delicate procedures, should not allow for margins of error.
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
Comments (1)
The article highlights a very worrying situation. The lack of adequate heart transport is unacceptable. It is essential that thorough investigations be conducted to understand how this grave error could have occurred.