Of
Davide Soattin
Doctor Vincenzo Gallucci’s little patient was not even 15 years old: «Without that operation I would have died in a few months. I suffered from anxiety, today I’m fine. I know who gave me the organ, but I never wanted to meet the family”
Thirty-eight years ago, on 24 March 1987, at the hospital in Padua, Italian medicine wrote a page of history: for the first time, thanks to the medical team of Professor Vincenzo Galluccia little girl underwent a pediatric heart transplant. She was the teenager Elisabetta Nobili from Ferrara, suffering from dilated myocardiopathy. Today that little girl is a woman: she is 53 years old and lives in San Giorgio di Piano, in the province of Bologna, where she continues to live her life “normally” as she says, sitting at a table in a bar while sipping a latte, retracing step by step the stages of her incredible story.
Elisabetta, when did you find out that you had to deal with a serious heart problem?
«They think that I was born healthy and that I contracted the disease when I was a year and a half old. It all started with a strong, significant cough. My parents had me seen by some specialists, but I didn’t get better or even get better. So they decided to rely on the Padua hospital, where they discovered the existence of a virus that had attacked my heart, developing dilated myocardiopathy.”
What consequences does this pathology cause?
“In practice the organ gets bigger and bigger and, when it beats, it bumps into the other organs.”
The doctors then told Mom and Dad that a transplant was needed.
«I continued the problem until I was 13, then Dr. Pellegrino, who followed me, told my parents that the only way out was a transplant. At 10 I had an embolism and stopped going to school. My picture had been degenerating. I had become increasingly thinner and paler. I couldn’t do anything, not even go to the beach because I got nervous, or to the mountains because I got tired. Only sometimes I went to the lake.”
Was he risking his life?
“Without the transplant, they still gave me a few months.”
Do you remember the day when Padua warned that the time had come for the transplant?
“Certain. I remember that when the phone call came home, I went to answer it. Obviously it was a trauma even if, in part, I was prepared. I knew that sooner or later that moment would come. ‘Elisabetta, your heart has arrived’ they told me on the other end of the phone. I was shocked, then I called grandmother who was with me at the time. It was she who notified my mother and within a few hours they arrived to pick me up in an ambulance.”
Go ahead.
«I remember that, when I arrived in Padua, they prepared me. They washed me, put me in a gown and gave me a pill to calm me down. The last memory is that of a small prick they gave me on the butt, then I fell asleep.”
How long did the surgery last?
“From midnight until the next morning, seven or eight hours.”
Did everything go smoothly?
«Immediately after the transplant there was a bit of rejection, but very little. After leaving the operating room they put me in an aseptic room where I remained for a week. Perhaps because of my fear, which probably materialized, the day after the transplant I remember seeing death that wanted to take me. He was next to the bed, he had a black cloak and a scythe like in the comics. It was an image so clear and real that even for a while, when I went to sleep, I was afraid of seeing it again.”
Mom and Dad were put to the test.
“Yes. They commuted for the entire month I was hospitalized. However, my mother came only a few times because she had to stay at home with Francesca, my younger sister. Dad, on the other hand, was always there. Every time I entered the clinic I wanted him to be there with me. He held my hand and made me feel calm even during the various exams. She was my supporting figure in that period.”
Have you had the opportunity to know the name, history or family members of the person who gave you the heart?
«I know that my donor was called Maria Grazia, she was 13 years old and lived in Segrate, in the province of Milan. He died in a domestic accident, slipping in the house. I know that our parents know each other and that his parents came to visit me in hospital after the operation. Even today, my parents send them flowers on the anniversary of his death, and I receive them from them on my birthday. For my wedding, they even sent me a card.”
But he never met them.
«I wanted to get to know them, I said so many times. I had the desire. Then, I don’t know why, perhaps over time and also with the help of my psychologist, I developed the idea of not wanting to know them so as not to trigger memories in them that could hurt, risking opening some drawers that, perhaps, had already been closed during the mourning phase.”
Today, almost forty years after that transplant, how is life going?
«My life proceeds normally. I continue to take the anti-rejection medication, even though they told me I could stop. Already two or three years ago, my doctor explained to me that the organ is now completely mine: the cells no longer recognize it as a foreign body, but as part of me. And this unlocked a world for me.”
Meaning what?
«After the transplant I went through a period in which I believed I wasn’t the same as others. I had something inside me that wasn’t mine, what I considered an intruder. As if they had deprived me of a part of me to give me one that wasn’t mine. And so I didn’t feel comfortable at all. I was nervous about everything and I traced any health ailment back to the transplant. Now, however, I have changed my point of observation.”
Do you feel more confident?
«Now I feel that heart is mine, it is my favourite. Of course, I have to do some routine check-ups, but I can go about my life peacefully. I hope to always continue like this. Indeed, to improve.”
What advice would you give to anyone facing a similar journey to the one you faced?
«First of all, be followed by a psychologist, both pre- and post-operatively. It is really very important, not only for the patient, but also for the family. It helps to face the path differently and avoid the creation of images or ideas that are out of phase and distorted compared to what is the reality of the facts.”
Was it like this for her?
«My parents loved me, but they protected me too much. They did everything for me, not getting me used to the world. It also happened that I had to tell a few lies to not make them worry and gain some autonomy. Perhaps because it was a different period and there was still no awareness of how to manage situations of this type. All this created a lot of anxiety in me, and only a few years ago, thanks to psychotherapy, I began to gain more self-confidence.”
Any other advice?
«Then obviously I say to trust the doctors. Even today I am very close to the doctors who operated on me: Ugo Livi, Giuseppe Faggian, Alessandro Mazzucco and Giovanni Stellin, members of Professor Vincenzo Gallucci’s pediatric team. I will be forever grateful to them for everything they did for me. They saved my life, and that’s saying a lot. Just as I am very close to the head nurse, Sister Tiziana, and to Roberta, a nurse at the Padua hospital.”
Do you feel like launching an appeal?
«Donation is important, donating organs is important. With just one life you can save at least eight. This is the appeal I want to launch.”
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December 28, 2025 (changed December 28, 2025 | 08:16)
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