The opinion of the Bambino Gesù

The child with the burnt heart 'is no longer transplantable', but the doctor wants to operate again. The mother: 'I won't give up'

The child from Naples who was implanted with a heart that later turned out to be damaged had already been placed first on the waiting list for his blood type

14 February 2026

Napoli, la madre del bimbo che ha ricevuto un cuore danneggiato: "E' sempre più grave"

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Two-year-old survives attached to a machine
Heart damage in transport: dry ice is to blame

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The opinion of the Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome, requested by the family of the child transplanted with a 'burnt heart', has arrived. "According to the Bambino Gesù hospital" the child admitted to the Monaldi hospital in Naples "is no longer transplantable". This was stated by the family's lawyer, Francesco Petruzzi, in connection with the television programme 'Mi manda Raitre'.

An opinion against which 'at the Monaldi they seem to have strongly opposed': 'The opposition came from the doctor who operated on him, who claims that he is still transplantable and remains on the transplant list for the time being. It will be the same doctor, who I assume is under investigation, who will re-operate him. So I have to go to the judicial police this morning for a supplementary complaint. It's a very strange affair,' the lawyer added. 'Obviously I hope that the Bambino Gesù is wrong and that the Monaldi's opinion is the correct one. But there are other events that are intertwining,' the lawyer added. 'They have decided, they have formally communicated it to us: he will be reoperated. Possibly supported by a team from the Bambin Gesù'.

The Monaldi's confirmation: the baby is transplantable

"The child is transplantable because he is on the list, in the opinion of the team working on it. He has never been off this list, except briefly in the past. The condition is very serious but stable'. This is how the Monaldi hospital in Naples takes stock of the situation of the little patient who had a 'burnt' heart transplanted and is now waiting for a new organ. "I do not enter into the medical question, but there is the closeness of the entire Campania Regional Council and Region to the family and the little one in this very painful and terrible affair," said Roberto Fico, President of the Campania Region. "As you know," Fico said, "I have activated the highest level of inspection and investigative powers that are the responsibility of the Campania Region, I have officially written to the General Directorate for Health, which immediately activated everything within its possibilities, and so I await the results of everything they will recover by asking the Monaldi".

Mum: 'He is a warrior and I don't give up'

"He is a warrior. And like him, I don't give up. A new heart has to arrive to make him come home'. So says Patrizia Mercolino, the mother of the child in serious condition after receiving a transplant of a damaged heart two months ago, at the entrance of the Monaldi hospital. Patrizia received inside the hospital, far from reporters and cameras, a visit of solidarity from Cardinal Domenico Battaglia. With her was the family's lawyer, Francesco Petruzzi: 'In the case of a new transplant,' he said, 'it should not be performed by the same doctor as in the first operation, who we imagine is, as a matter of duty, among the investigated health workers.

Two-year-old boy survives attached to a machine

The child from Naples who had a heart implanted but which was later found to be damaged had already been placed first on the waiting list for his blood group. The news had been communicated in recent days by the Ministry of Health to the mother, Patrizia. The 2-year-old and 4-month-old, who is in intensive care at the Monaldi Hospital in Naples, is in serious but stable condition. Since 23 December, he has been surviving only thanks to a machine, ECMO, to which he was connected immediately after the transplant of a compatible heart taken in Bolzano but failed because the organ, which arrived in Naples by plane, was damaged.

His story, which is holding the whole of Italy in suspense, has prompted the Ministry of Health, with Minister Orazio Schillaci, to send its inspectors to the hospital in Bolzano, where the organ was removed, and to the Monaldi hospital in Naples, where the heart was implanted in the little boy, who had been suffering from severe dilated heart disease since he was just four months old. After the complaint filed by the family with the Carabinieri on 11 January, in which clear reference was made to the damage to which the child would be exposed if connected to that device for a long time, the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation: in recent days, the investigators have entered six Parthenopean hospital doctors in the register of suspects, for culpable lesions, as members of the team that went to Bolzano to remove the organ and the team that performed the transplant in Naples.

Damage to the heart in transport: blame dry ice

According to Francesco Petruzzi, lawyer for the child's family, the damage to the heart could be attributable to the way the organ was transferred to Naples. The Naples Nas has acquired all the child's clinical documentation, and also seized the box used to transfer the organ, which will now be subjected to an expert's report: the container in question, in fact, is a real storage and transport system designed to maintain temperatures within a certain range, in a state of hypothermia.

According to what the lawyer has learned, instead of traditional ice as a coolant, dry ice (which reaches as low as -75 degrees) was used, causing the heart to freeze and damage the heart to be transplanted. These are all aspects that the deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Tittaferrante and assistant prosecutor Antonio Ricci are focusing on, who, together with the Nas (both from Naples and Trento, which is responsible for Bolzano) are hypothesising the crime of culpable injury.