Of
Luca Pernice
His father, former mayor of Pietracatella, was also hospitalized. There were fifteen of us at the Christmas Eve dinner but the other guests had no symptoms. The previous day’s meal is investigated
Twice they went to the emergency room and twice they were sent home with the diagnosis of simple gastroenteritis. They came back a third time for the constant excruciating painbut it was already too late: Sara Di Vitaa 15-year-old high school student and her mother Antonella Di Ielsi50, am died within a few hours of each other at the Cardarelli hospital in Campobasso. The death, according to the doctors, was caused by “multi-organ failure” caused by food poisoning. A tragedy that destroyed a family of Pietracatellaa small Molise town of just under 1,200 inhabitants. Also the father and husband of the victims, Gianni Di Vita, 55 years old, accountant and former mayor of the town, was admitted to the Emergency Medicine department of the Campobasso hospital.
On Sunday evening the man, who was never in danger of his life, was transferred to the National Institute for Infectious Diseases “Lazzaro Spallanzani” in Rome where he will be subjected to tests, including toxicological testsnecessary to identify the substance or agent that may have caused the serious food poisoning. His other daughter, a twenty-year-old who has never experienced any symptoms, was also hospitalized with him, but only for checks.
The prosecutor’s investigation
On the matter the Campobasso Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into five doctors and nurses and he arranged the autopsy on the bodies of mother and daughter which is expected to be carried out on Tuesday. The victims’ medical records were also seized. Meanwhile, the Molise Regional Health Authority has also launched an internal investigation. According to what was reconstructed by the agents of the Campobasso flying squad, coordinated by Marco Graziano, on Christmas evening the two women and the man went to the emergency room from the Molise hospital because they complained of stomach pain and vomiting. Around 1 am they were discharged for simple food poisoning and gastroenteritis. It seems that the doctors had ruled out Botox. The next morning the family unit returned to the emergency room again for the same symptoms as the previous day: in the afternoon, however, all three were sent home again.
The death of her daughter and then her mother
The fifteen-year-old’s condition worsened on the 27th when, accompanied to the hospital by a relative, she was immediately admitted to intensive care, where she died around 11pm. In the evening the mother was also hospitalized in the same ward, where she discovered that her daughter Sara had not made it: the woman died yesterday morning. «The clinical pictures – explained Vincenzo Cuzzone, head of the intensive care department of the Cardarelli hospital – have had a truly rare evolution which quickly led to death despite the intensive forms of support we put in place. There was liver failure and then a cascade of events one after another with a truly unique rapidity that led to multiple organ failure.”
Christmas Eve dinner
According to the investigators’ first reconstruction, the family had dinner on Christmas Eve at home with other friends and relatives: about fifteen people in total. A dinner also based on fish and mushrooms. But, excluding the three family members who later suffered symptoms, none of the guests felt ill. Here’s why the evening of the 23rd is also to the attention of those investigatingwhen only the mother, the minor daughter and the father were at dinner – always in the family home. The eldest daughter, in fact, had dined out. Police officers raided the accountant’s home throughout yesterday food jars, preserves and other edible productswhich will be analyzed to understand what could have caused the fatal intoxication. Some food scraps recovered from the garbage were also seized, including mussel shells and other fish. At the moment investigators tend not to rule out any hypotheses: Botox or listeria poisoning These are just some of the leads being investigated. The attention of the Prosecutor’s Office and the flying squad is not only the cause of the fatal poisoning but also the management of the three family members in the emergency room and the clinical decisions taken in the two days before the hospitalization of the girl and her mother.
Go to all the news from Foggia
Subscribe to the Corriere del Mezzogiorno Puglia newsletter
December 28, 2025 (changed December 29, 2025 | 10:08)
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Related News :