Two-year-old Domenico has died in Italy, two months after receiving a heart transplant that was allegedly damaged during transportation, prompting a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.
According to reports, Domenico passed away on Saturday after being on life support in Naples since undergoing the transplant surgery in December. Prosecutors have opened an investigation, with six medical professionals placed under formal scrutiny.
The family’s lawyer claims the donated heart had come into direct contact with dry ice during transport, causing severe frost damage that left the organ unable to function properly. By Wednesday, doctors reportedly informed the family that Domenico’s condition was no longer compatible with another transplant.
Before his death at Monaldi Hospital in Naples, Domenico suffered what doctors described as a sudden and irreversible deterioration in his clinical condition. Medical staff had earlier warned that prolonged use of life support risked damaging his lungs, liver and kidneys.
The case has triggered widespread anger across Italy. Speaking after Domenico’s death, the family’s lawyer, Francesco Petruzzi, said, “If the time for hope has ended, then the time for responsibility has begun.”
Domenico’s mother, Patrizia Mercolino, had earlier made a public appeal for help, including a plea to the Pope, as her son’s condition worsened.
Italy’s Health Minister, Orazio Schillaci, said authorities must fully clarify what happened. “We owe it to the child, to the family, and to all Italians,” he said, stressing the importance of preserving public trust in the national health system.
Investigators are examining whether the donor heart was mistakenly transported with dry ice rather than standard medical ice. Police reportedly discovered the organ had been moved in an ordinary plastic box instead of a specialised transport container. The absence of temperature monitoring may have prevented doctors from realising the heart had been exposed to extreme cold.
Domenico was born with cardiomyopathy, a condition that thickens the heart muscle, and had been placed on a transplant waiting list as his condition worsened. A donor heart became available following the death of a four-year-old boy who drowned in a swimming pool in Bolzano, northern Italy. The heart was transported over eight hours south to Naples for the procedure.
Patrizia Mercolino later told Italian television that doctors informed her shortly after the surgery that the heart had failed to start properly. “My son was fine before the transplant,” she said. “Despite his heart problems, he played and smiled.”
In one of her final appeals before Domenico’s death, the grieving mother said her life was now “dominated by pain” and her only wish was to bring her child home.
