Twenty years after the accident in which he was the unfortunate protagonist, he passed away on 18 April Franco Zampedri, 53 years old from Trentino who had been living in a vegetative state since that day. The former university coach from Pergine (Trento), passionate about music (he played the trumpet) and a huge fan of Juventus (and in particular of the former number 10 Alessandro Del Piero) on 4 July 2004 he was returning home by car after visiting his then girlfriend Cristina Bertoldi in Sant’Orsola, in the town where the two were going to live in the apartment they had purchased together.
The accident and the death of the mother
The man went off the road with his car in Canezza, flying over two metres: the impact was very violent, so much so that the fifty-three-year-old never recovered. At the time of the accident, Zampedri was employed at the University of Trento, in the university’s linguistic center which is located in the Faculty of Letters, and in 1993 he had suffered a heavy loss, remaining deeply shaken by the loss of his mother Carmela Berlanda. «My wife suffered from pulmonary hypertension and had to have surgery, he absolutely didn’t want her to do it – says Franco’s father, Goffredo Zampedri – In the end she lost her life under the knife and my son was ill for some time». Then the unfortunate accident in 2004: «The curve was very sharp and he went off the road, ending up with the car in the garden of a house under the road – he says – He hit the steering wheel with his chest and went into cardiac arrest. Help arrived late and the brain was already compromised.”
Music and the band
Until the end “I always believed that my Franco would awaken – Goffredo says again — We had hopes that we could recover in the first few years but the situation never improved. With the little houses I made him listen to the music of the Viarago band in the room, where he played the trumpet, and seemed to react to stimuli but in the end there was no sign of revival. Before the accident she loved listening to that music even at home.”
The clinical situation
Despite medical care, Zampedri’s health conditions in the last two months they have fallen: «His body refused any type of food and for this reason the doctors were forced to continuously give him IV drips. Franco weakened and Thursday morning suffered fatal cardiac arrest.” The news was communicated to Goffredo «by Dr. Maria Teresa Mattivi of the Santo Spirito of Pergine, who was very close to me and who treated my son with love all these years». Precisely at the APSP of the «Santo Spirito» the mortuary has been set up, before the funeral on Saturday at 2.30 pm in Virago.
Supporting Juventus
Zaffredi was a great lover of sport, especially football. An avid Juventus fan, he «followed the Bianconeri away from home whenever he had the chance – he still remembers his father Goffredo — He went away to the “Meazza” in Milan, to Cesena, but also often to Turin.” His story had also become known to the Juventus players, so much so that in the summer of 2007 the then captain Alessandro Del Piero, between one training session and another in the Pinzolo retreat, went to visit him: «Alex had come to Pergine – he concludes — proving himself a great champion. I had talked to him a bit and he had hoped that Franco could recover.” The mayor of Pergine, Roberto Oss Emer, was also saddened: «I didn’t know him, but I know for a fact that they treated and looked after him very well at the Santo Spirito. I join in the family’s grief, Losing a person like that always hurts.” In addition to his father, the fifty-three-year-old is also mourning his brother Sergio and his two nieces Samantha and Natanael.
Tags: lived vegetative state Alex Del Piero left retirement
