The solidarity competition has started to help the young pizza chef from Casalnuovo, Raffaele De Simone, who was involved in a tragic accident in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on the night of April 19th.
The friends started a fundraiser through the gofoundme platform. Raffaele, a young 30-year-old pizza chef, has taken the art of pizza around the world, spreading the joy and passion for Italian cuisine to places like Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil.
He had been in Brazil for a few months as a student visa applicant, which is why he unfortunately does not have health insurance in the area. Falling from a height of three and a half metres, in addition to a deep head wound and multiple fractures, he suffered a hemorrhage pulmonary, fractures of the c3 and c5 vertebrae while the c4 vertebra compressed the spinal cord, resulting in a state of tetraplegia.
He was recovered by the firefighters while he was alert but in total motor paralysis, managing to move only his eyes. He was subsequently transported in critical condition to the Hospital Municipal Souza Aguiar in Rio de Janeiro.
There, at first, the hospital doctors told us that they didn’t believe he would make it through the night: the strong pulmonary pressure and low blood pressure led to serious functional problems of the heart and lungs, which made it necessary to use of machinery to keep him alive and the induction of a pharmacological coma to ensure that this condition did not have irreversible effects caused by cerebral hypoxia.
This time too Raffaele proved to be a warrior and, after the night, despite continuing to risk his life, the doctors witnessed an improvement in his vital functions. They therefore decided to attempt an experimental operation through which to decompress the spinal cord and realign Raffaele’s cervical spine.
The operation, which lasted about eight hours and was complicated by impaired white blood cells, went better than doctors thought.
However, Raffaele’s battle is only just beginning: he is still in intensive care and it is not possible to transfer him to facilities closer to his loved ones. The only hopes of obtaining improvements in motor and brain functions pass through a long rehabilitation process which unfortunately has heavy costs that the family, recently orphaned by father Guglielmo, cannot afford.
Raffaele, assisted by his sister Lea who arrived in Brazil, was transferred to a clinic specialized in the recovery of patients with serious spinal trauma.
The total cost of rehabilitation in the clinic is around 4500 euros per day and the Doctors told us that it will take a few months to know how Raffaele’s body responds to the therapy. The Italian Consulate cannot directly help with medical matters.
The aim of this fundraiser is to lend a hand to the family, to give Raffaele another opportunity so that his smile can shine again on his wonderful face and in all the places that, we are sure, one day he will return to visit .
The amount is important and therefore we hope to help Raffaele inside the clinic for the first month, thus giving his family time to understand how to move on this tortuous and uncertain path, perhaps allowing Raffaele to stabilize, so as to evaluate a possible transfer today impossible.
“We humbly ask for your contribution, whatever it may be. Every donation – write friends on the Gofoundme platform – large or small, will make a difference in Raffaele’s life and in his path to recovery, will give him more hope of not being paralyzed in a bed for life.
Your every gesture of generosity will ensure that Raffaele’s fight was not in vain and will be welcomed with gratitude as a tangible sign of our community’s affection towards him.
For transparency we will publish the clinic fees from time to time, just as today we publish the cost of the first three days which was 59,000 Brazilian dollars, approximately 12,000 euros.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support and solidarity during this difficult time. With your help, we can give Raffaele the hope and strength to continue his fight for recovery.”
Thanks to more than a thousand donations, the collection is already over 37 thousand euros. Organizers are updating donors with documents and expenses. You can contribute at the link https://www.gofundme.com/f/un-
