A delicate journey, that of a heart destined to save a child's life, is now at the center of a judicial investigation. It is around that journey—beginning in an operating room in Bolzano and concluding at the Monaldi Hospital in Naples—that the Naples Prosecutor's Office is trying to piece together what went wrong in the incident that led to the death of little Domenico Caliendo.
The child died after a heart transplant performed on December 23, 2025, at the specialized center of the Naples hospital. It was a complex procedure, performed with an organ harvested just hours earlier in South Tyrol. However, according to initial investigations, something may have gone wrong in the heart's preservation and transportation chain.
For this reason, the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office has opened a case of complicit manslaughter. The investigation has been entrusted to the NAS Carabinieri, who in recent weeks have been interviewing numerous health workers and healthcare professionals involved in the various phases of the procedure: from organ procurement to the transplant performed in the Campania capital.
The collection in Bolzano
The heart intended for little Domenico had been removed at the hospital in Bolzano by a team from the Monaldi Hospital that had traveled to Alto Adige specifically for this purpose. After the surgery, the organ was prepared for transfer to Naples, where it would be implanted in the child a few hours later.
It is precisely this phase—that of conservation and transport—that today represents one of the most delicate points of the investigation.
The issue of organ preservation
According to preliminary investigations, the heart was transported using dry ice, a substance that can reach temperatures as low as minus 80 degrees Celsius. This method differs from the traditional method used to preserve organs during transport.
Furthermore, the organ was apparently placed inside an old-fashioned refrigerated container, no longer deemed compliant with the most up-to-date guidelines on the transportation of organs intended for transplants.
Technical elements that investigators are now evaluating to understand whether they could have compromised the integrity of the heart before the intervention.
Anonymous testimonies and suspicion about the water
In recent days, the investigation has also seen a new strand of investigation. Anonymous testimonies, gathered during a television broadcast, have raised doubts about the quality of the water used at the Bolzano hospital to produce the ice for the organ's preservation.
According to these reports, the water may have been of poor quality or even contaminated. This hypothesis, while unconfirmed at this time, has nevertheless prompted the Prosecutor's Office to further investigate this stage of the proceedings.
The health workers' hearings
Meanwhile, interviews with people with knowledge of the facts continue. The NAS Carabinieri are gathering testimonies from doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers who were present in the operating rooms involved in the removal and transplant on December 23rd.
According to initial investigations, the versions provided so far by the medical staff appear to be substantially consistent and have not revealed any significant contradictions in the reconstruction of events.
The technical investigations
The investigation is therefore continuing on several levels: on the one hand, the verification of the medical procedures adopted, on the other, the analysis of the methods of preservation and transport of the organ.
The investigators' goal is to establish whether there were any irregularities or errors in the management of the heart destined for transplant and whether these critical issues may have played a decisive role in the young patient's death.
A complex investigative journey, which aims to clarify every step of a dramatic story that began with the hope of salvation and ended with the death of a child.
The news is sad, but we must remain neutral and wait for the results of the investigation, not make hasty assumptions. There are too many assumptions and controversies; the transport chain must be clarified: dry ice, old container, contaminated water? Did the doctors do everything? Or were there human errors that must be evaluated methodically and without hasty judgment.