A case of manslaughter against unknown persons has been opened by the Massa Carrara Public Prosecutor's Office following the death of a one-and-a-half-year-old girl who arrived at the hospital in Massa (Massa Carrara) after being transferred from the Le Scotte polyclinic in Siena.

The medical records of both hospitals were seized and the little girl's body remains at the disposal of the judicial authorities, the autopsy is scheduled for Monday at the hospital in Lucca.

The little girl, daughter of a young couple of foreign origin but long resident in Siena, had been taken to the emergency room of the Le Scotte hospital on Tuesday 5 November because she felt ill and was discharged from there after 10 hours of tests. But four hours after returning home she had another relapse and returned to the hospital with a hospitalization, this time in intensive care.

According to what has been learned, the first hospitalization was caused by the ingestion of a battery, which the parents did not notice and therefore did not report to the doctors. The battery was then identified and removed during the second hospitalization in Siena, but the chemical substances released caused irreversible damage to the little girl. Then, on Tuesday, November 12, the transfer to Massa where the operating room had been alerted for a heart operation but there was not even time for the little girl to intervene. She apparently died as soon as she arrived at the hospital in Massa, and from there the investigation was officially launched.

"All the protocols required in these cases were followed" but the child's conditions " subsequently worsened, probably due to the substances released by the battery which then had a damaging effect on the aorta". This is what can be read in a joint note signed by the Aou Senese for the Le Scotte polyclinic and Monasterio, which owns the Massa heart hospital.

"Aou Senese and Monasterio", it continues, "are close to the family and express their deepest condolences". The little girl, who, it is specified in the note, was 17 months old, had swallowed a "small battery: arrived in serious conditions at the hospital in Siena, despite the removal of the battery her conditions subsequently worsened and, urgently transferred by helicopter to the hospital of the heart of Massa, she died on November 12".

In the previous days, it is further explained, " the little girl had arrived at the Santa Maria alle Scotte hospital in Siena in serious conditions due to the ingestion of a small battery, dating back to several days before her arrival at the hospital. The little girl, after all the tests, underwent surgery to remove the foreign body and all the protocols foreseen in these cases were followed, but her conditions subsequently worsened, probably due to the substances released by the battery which then had a harmful effect on the aorta. On Tuesday 12 November, the doctors at Le Scotte decided to urgently transfer the little girl to the Monasterio heart hospital for a problem with her aorta. The little girl arrived by helicopter in Massa, but shortly after arrival her conditions worsened suddenly and fatally".

(Online Union)

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