Domenico's death, family lawyer: 'Two-minute heart surgery? Unbelievable.'

Naples – Death of little Domenico Caliendo: the legal battle between doctors and the family of the child, who died following a failed transplant, is being fought out in the nick of time.

This morning, the defense team representing cardiac surgeon and first operator Guido Oppido presented a photo of the operating room that would demonstrate the timing of the cardiectomy (the operation to remove Domenico's heart) and the opening of the box containing the donor's heart, but the Caliendo family's lawyer considers this theory "implausible."

For the Caliendo family's lawyer, the Oppido defense team's reconstruction is implausible: Faster than the fastest heart surgeon in the world?

This reconstruction, according to the Caliendo family's lawyer, Francesco Petruzzi, is "unbelievable" and counters the claim that the cardiectomy occurred before the heart box was opened. "We believe it is unlikely," Petruzzi argues. "It is therefore clear that the photo showing the operator placing his hands in the container cannot demonstrate the simultaneous occurrence of the cardiectomy and the opening of the refrigerated box containing the heart removed from the donor in Bolzano."

"Something doesn't add up. If it's true, as it is, that at 2:34 PM Domenico's little heart, as shown by a video in the file, was already on an operating room table, still beating, then it means that the first operator, Guido Oppido, took just two minutes to perform a cardioectomy, three times faster than the world's fastest heart surgeon, who, according to the expert report by preliminary investigations judge Mariano Sorrentino, took six minutes," said Petruzzi, the Caliendo family's lawyer, commenting on the screenshot of the video filed today by the cardiac surgeon's defense lawyers.

The cardiac surgeon is under investigation along with six colleagues: the Court of Appeal must decide on his professional ban.

Oppido is under investigation along with six other colleagues for the death of a two-and-a-half-year-old Neapolitan boy who died on February 21 following the failure of a heart transplant performed on December 23, 2025, at a Naples hospital. According to the Prosecutor's Office, Oppido began the cardiectomy before the box arrived in the operating room, a claim disputed this morning by the cardiac surgeon's defense, filing the photo.

The preliminary investigation judges, who must decide on the annulment of the 12-month medical disqualification order issued for Oppido last June by Naples investigating judge Mariano Sorrentino, also acquired the 533-page expert report commissioned by the preliminary investigations judge, and then reserved their decision.