Italian toddler with faulty heart transplant dies after weeks on life support

The 2-year-old had received a transplant in December reportedly with a heart that was damaged during transit by coming into direct contact with dry ice. Photo / Getty Images

An Italian toddler who received a faulty heart transplant died at the weekend in a case that has caused outrage in Italy over alleged medical malpractice.

The 2-year-old had received a transplant in December reportedly with a heart that was damaged during transit by coming into direct contact with dry ice.

Prosecutors are investigating six medical staff.

“It’s over. Domenico’s gone,” the 2-year-old’s mother Patrizia Mercolino told Italian media.

She said a foundation would be opened in his name.

Her son had been on life support for weeks at a hospital in Naples in a case that has made headlines in Italy.

The donor heart was reportedly transported from Bolzano in northern Italy to Naples - 800km away - in an unsuitable container without a thermometer that could have signalled the excessively low temperature.

Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said in a statement quoted by Italian media that Domenico’s case had “moved the whole of Italy”.

Schillaci earlier spoke of his concern that organ donations could decrease as a result of the case and called for “clarity” to ensure continued trust in the country’s medical services.

-Agence France-Presse