WhatsApp chat reveals changes to the medical diary to cover up the frozen heart error: four versions of Domenico's transplant emerge.

Naples – A veritable "progress march" that lasted over two days to finalize the clinical diary. This is what emerged from an analysis of the chats on the phones of the doctors involved in the tragic case of Domenico Caliendo, the two-and-a-half-year-old boy who died in February 2026 in the intensive care unit of Naples' Monaldi Hospital, following a failed heart transplant performed on December 23, 2025.

For the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office (with prosecutor Giuseppe Tittaferrante and deputy prosecutor Antonio Ricci) and the NAS Carabinieri led by Colonel Alessandro Cisternino, the chats exchanged between the surgeons constitute the ultimate proof of the falsification of the medical document.

The four versions sent to the head physician

Through the exchange of WhatsApp messages between Dr. Emma Bergonzoni (second operator) and resident Mariangela Addonizio (third operator), investigators reconstructed the preparation of the surgical report dated December 26, 2025. The messages, then forwarded to the first operator, Guido Oppido, reveal the existence of four distinct drafts:

First and second versions: the start of the cardiectomy (the removal of the child's diseased heart) is timed to coincide with the arrival in Naples of the team from Bolzano.

Third and fourth versions: the chronology changes. The heart removal is moved forward, starting only when the new organ is removed from the refrigerated box.

A fundamental change according to the investigators: aligning the start of the procedure with the opening of the container—which later proved inadequate and outside of guidelines, causing the organ to freeze—served to justify and "adjust" the timing of the chain of interventions.

The precautionary framework and the crux of the review

Preliminary Investigating Judge Mariano Sorrentino deemed the documentation altered, ordering a one-year ban from practicing law against Guido Oppido and Emma Bergonzoni. Attention now turns to September 11, when the Naples Review Court will rule on the appeal filed by the lawyers of the doctors involved.