At least forty-five minutes without a heart. This is the most disturbing fact that emerges from a new batch of chats acquired as part of the investigation into the death of little Domenico, who died after a failed heart transplant.Monaldi Hospital di NaplesThe conversations, which took place between nurses present in the operating room, are now being examined by the Prosecutor's Office of Naples and add new, dramatic elements to the reconstruction of the facts.
It was already known, thanks to a specialized nurse's statement, that "the closed container" containing the organ had arrived in the operating room "a few minutes before 2:30 PM." Now, however, the timeline becomes more precise and more serious. A message dated 3:00 PM states that the heart intended for the child, "brought in dry ice, has frozen" and that "perhaps they can't implant it; we've been trying to remove the ice for three hours."
At 3:14 PM, when asked for an update, another sentence weighs like a millstone: "We put the heart in hot water to thaw it. If it starts working again, it'll be a miracle." These words describe a desperate race against time, while the little patient had already undergone the removal of his diseased heart.
In the same conversation, the nurse—who reported leaving the operating room at 2:12 PM—asks, "Are you putting it in?" The answer comes bluntly: "He's doing the anastomosis," the surgical procedures to connect the new heart to the blood vessels. This process, according to the reconstruction based on the chat times, would have begun about forty-five minutes after the organ arrived, with the aorta already clamped.
The chats also reveal tensions and decisions made alone. When asked if the head physician was working alongside Dr. Farina, his response was clear: "No, he didn't want her or Dr. Pagano to work with him. He said, 'Leave me alone, get out of here.'" This detail now carries significant weight in the investigation, which must clarify not only what went wrong, but also how decisions and responsibilities were handled in those crucial moments.
It seems to me that things are not going well, the operation was done badly and the organ arrived frozen, then they put it in hot water without thinking, the head doctor said go away and no one stopped him, the nurses wrote in chat but there was no coordination, the timelines were confusing and the responsibilities are mixed, too many errors and little clarification.