Domenico's case: The family: "The reconstruction of the facts is ours."

The Naples Court of Review rejected doctor Guido Oppido's appeal and upheld his one-year ban from practicing law. In over thirty pages, the judges reconstructed the sequence of events of December 23, 2025, the day of little Domenico's heart transplant. Attorney Francesco Petruzzi stated: "For months, attempts were made to move the clock back. The Court examined alternative reconstructions and rejected them." The principle of the presumption of innocence remains intact, and the trial will determine any liability.

The decision of the Court of Appeal

A new legal development has emerged in the case of Domenico Caliendo, the child who died after a heart transplant performed at the Monaldi Hospital. The Naples Court of Review has rejected the appeal filed by doctor Guido Oppido, upholding his one-year ban from practicing medicine.

This was reported by Francesco Petruzzi, lawyer for Domenico's family, who commented on the content of the order in a statement.

According to the lawyer, the judges, in a ruling lasting over thirty pages, reconstructed "minute by minute" what happened in the operating room on December 23, 2025, the day Domenico underwent the transplant.

The times of the intervention at the reconstruction center

Petruzzi specifically refers to the timeline reported in the medical documentation.

The cardiopulmonary bypass would begin at 2:02 PM, while the aorta would be clamped at 2:18 PM. The team with the new heart would enter the hospital at 2:23 PM, and the container containing the organ would arrive in the operating room at 2:26 PM.

A passage which, according to the reconstruction supported by the family, takes on particular significance: the container would have been opened after Domenico's chest had already been emptied.

It is precisely these temporal divisions, the lawyer argues, that represent one of the central elements of the comparison between the different reconstructions of the event.

«For months we've been trying to move those hands»

In the statement, attorney Petruzzi disputes the alternative reconstructions that emerged during the investigation. "For months, attempts have been made to move those clocks," he states, referring to the claims that the times reported in the medical records were unreliable or merely approximate.

According to the family, several reconstructions and technical consultations were put forward, including hypotheses on the duration of the heart's pulsation before its use during the surgery.

"The Court examined them all and rejected them all," Petruzzi claims, thus attributing particular importance to the review order.

The family's battle: "We want to know what happened."

In the harshest passage of the note, the lawyer argues that an incorrect representation of the sequence of events would have ended up depriving the parents of the right to know what really happened to their son.

"A false representation of the facts," Petruzzi writes, citing the content of the order, "would have deprived these parents of the right to know what was done to their son."

Hence the family's decision to continue the legal battle: "We will give it back to them, one document at a time," says the lawyer.

The process will have to establish any responsibilities

However, the legal case remains open and the preliminary investigation order does not amount to a finding of liability.

Petruzzi himself emphasized respect for the presumption of innocence, specifying that the final determination will be made at trial.

"We will not take a step back for Domenico," concludes the family's lawyer, reiterating their desire to fully ascertain the facts that preceded and accompanied the transplant on December 23, 2025.