Died in hospital after surgery: 4 doctors under investigation

Aversa – Three surgeries in a matter of days, weeks of agony in intensive care, and finally the tragic outcome that ended the life of a mother. The death of Angela Salzano, the 43-year-old from Afragola, is tinged with legal mystery after a hospital ordeal that began on July 6th.

The Naples North Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into the incident, alleging manslaughter and listing four doctors from the San Giuseppe Moscati hospital in Aversa as suspects.

The family's grief and the start of the investigation

"I demand justice for my young daughters. I want to know the truth and to determine any negligence, guilt, or responsibility." This is the cry of pain conveyed by Vincenzo Redina, the victim's husband, to his lawyers, Carmine Di Mauro and Ilaria Elberti.

The Prosecutor's Office responded promptly to the family's complaint, appointing a team of four experts—a medical examiner, a gynecologist and obstetrician, an anesthesiologist, and a pathologist—who were tasked with providing the silk factory with the woman's entire medical history. The defense teams of the medical professionals involved also appointed their own expert witnesses in preparation for the unique investigations, including the autopsy already performed on the forty-three-year-old's body.

The dramatic sequence: from San Giuseppe Moscati to Monaldi

Her clinical condition deteriorated following a scheduled surgery. On July 6, Angela Salzano underwent a total hysterectomy to remove a uterine fibroid at Aversa Hospital. The 40-year-old gynecologist who performed the operation (CV) and the three other members of the assisting surgical team (AM, RMA, and CMDG) are under investigation.

Already in the hours immediately following the operation, the patient had begun to experience severe abdominal pain and a progressive deterioration in her general condition, with the discovery of a significant abdominal biliary effusion.

The second operation: On July 8th Angela underwent a first emergency operation.
The third operation and the transfer: Her critical condition necessitated further surgery before her desperate transfer to the Monaldi Hospital in Naples, where she was admitted to intensive care and placed on ECMO treatment, but she did not survive.

The issue of presumed intestinal perforation

The focus of the judicial investigation is the chronological and causal sequence of events that led to the death. The husband's complaint raises the suspicion of intestinal perforation that occurred during the first surgery.

A key element under investigation by investigators also concerns a conversation between a family member and a hospital staff member—a conversation in which the clinical picture was linked to the alleged intestinal injury—the recording of which has been formally acquired and made available to the judicial authorities.

The judiciary and technical consultants will now have the task of establishing whether there was negligent conduct or omissions and whether a timely diagnosis or intervention could have avoided the fatal outcome.