Overview
- The donor heart from a four-year-old who drowned in South Tyrol was sent from Bolzano to Naples, a journey of more than 800 kilometers.
- Surgeons at Naples’ Monaldi hospital found the organ stored in dry ice at about −78°C, rendering it unusable and forcing the operation to be called off.
- Standard procedure is to immerse the heart in sterile preservation solution and cool it externally with conventional ice to maintain roughly 4–8°C.
- Internal reviews are underway at the involved hospitals, while prosecutors in both cities investigate the breakdown in the transplant chain.
- Bolzano’s hospital says it conducted only the retrieval and that conservation was the responsibility of the Naples center; the two-year-old remains hospitalized awaiting a new match.