Mystery surrounds the death of an 82-year-old man, born in Ragusa but resident in Australia for decades, who died in the Papardo hospital in Messina after an angioplasty on September 17.
The hospital is already under the spotlight of the Messina prosecutor's office for six cases of suspicious deaths due to an alleged killer bacterium with three doctors under investigation and the seizure of two cardiac surgery operating rooms for analysis.
The elderly man, the family's lawyer reports, had been taken ill while on holiday on the island of Stromboli and had been transferred by helicopter to Papardo where doctors diagnosed a heart attack.
«Subjected to angioplasty with the application of a "stent" - says the lawyer Massimiliano Fabio - the patient was in good health, according to what was reported by the health workers to the family and through the intermediation of two friends who provided assistance, although calcifications of the coronary arteries had been found for which a further angioplasty would have been evaluated».
"The operation - he continues - was performed without the application of stents or anything else, according to what the operators said, due to these calcifications. Also in this case the family received reassurances about the good health of the elderly man and the children, who were about to travel, were assured that there were no urgent reasons to reach Italy, so much so that in the following days the patient would be discharged and could return to his country of residence".
Instead, the man's condition worsened: he was admitted to intensive care due to an infection that was initially reported to be urinary tract.
In addition to the 82-year-old , the other six patients had also undergone cardiac surgery and died a few days after the operation due to hospital infections. The hypothesis is that some pathogen contaminated the installed valves.
(Online Union)
