Santo, eleven years old, passed away after two surgeries and three days of agony. But before his breathing stopped forever, his parents authorized the removal of his organs. A courageous decision that has restored hope to five people who, since yesterday, have been living with the heart, corneas, liver and kidneys of the child Greek’s towerdied in hospital Santobono of Naples due to the consequences of suffocation.
The drama, for the family Virgi who lives near Largo Santissimo, began last week. Santo, who has autism, really liked pizza. He had to eat it every day. There was no way to change his mind. And even on the morning of the accident his mother, Carmela, had agreed to buy him the usual slice in a focacceria in the historic center. With her promise, however, that she would eat it at home where their father Antonio, a garbage collector, was waiting for them. But at lunchtime, in a few moments, tragedy occurred.
The drama
According to the reconstruction made by some witnesses, the Virgi family is about to sit down at the table when Santo gives a bite into pizza. The voices of the street vendors reach the upper floors of the buildings, the market is still crowded and there is traffic on the street. The horns of cars and buses pierce the eardrums. The baby starts coughing and the mother realizes that something is wrong. In fact, a piece of food is stuck in the throat and no maneuver can free the trachea. Santo finds it increasingly difficult to breathe. Mom and dad are close to him, they despair and try to help him however they can. All in vain: the little one becomes cyanotic.
Antonio Virgi, who until a few years ago had a fruit and vegetable stand in Largo Santissimo, understands that there is no time to waste. He takes the child into his arms and rushes down the stairs. He arrives on the street and doesn’t need to ask for help from those in the neighborhood who have always known him.
Antonio and Carmela’s screams have already attracted the attention of shopkeepers and customers. A young street vendor takes immediate action: he gets behind the wheel of a motorbike and signals Antonio to get on with the now unconscious child. The only solution is to rush to the emergency room in via Montedoro: it’s too risky to wait for the ambulance to arrive. These are excited moments: the specialists ofMaresca hospital they manage to revive Santo and understand that the timing and cold blood of the peddler-motorcycle rider have restored hope to the Virgi family.
But, although the little one has started breathing again, the child’s condition immediately appears desperate. Therefore the doctors of Torre del Greco arrange for the immediate transfer to Santobono where the light of hope seems to go out almost immediately. In fact, to try to reduce the consequences of suffocation, the specialists were forced to take Santo to the operating room twice. Then they realize there’s nothing they can do. The child’s vital functions are definitively compromised.
It is at that moment that mum and dad authorize the removal of the organs, giving a second chance to five other people. «I was given the opportunity to be next to him in the last minutes before the removal took place» says Don Ciro Scala, the priest who also celebrated the funeral mass yesterday afternoon in the pontifical basilica of Santa Cross at Torre del Greco. «I gave him the sacraments and left him a caress from all of us. In these moments the pain is excruciating.” Santo was the youngest of four brothers and the most pampered by the whole family.
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