Tragedy on the Seven Brothers, Antonio Carta's mother: «After 19 years the pain still prevents me from sleeping»

Exactly 19 years have passed, but no one in Ghilarza has forgotten the tragedy of February 24, 2004 , when heart surgeon Antonio Carta and the members of the team of the Brotzu hospital in Cagliari , led by Alessandro Ricchi, lost their lives in a dramatic plane crash while transporting the heart destined for a transplant from San Camillo in Rome .

The mother - Palmira Manca, 87 years old, Antonio's mother certainly does not forget it.

“That day was all over for me,” she says. «I never go out, I eat what I need, I can sleep very little, I pray and I wait to be able to hug Antonio and my husband Peppe again».

«Pain – continues Palmira Manca – has destroyed us and since Antonio died, the father has never spoken. A silent pain until his death, in 2011, at the age of 84».

And Mrs. Manca will not even go out to participate in the Holy Mass in suffrage which will be celebrated on Saturday 25 February, at 5 pm, at the Parish of the Immaculate Conception in Ghilarza.

The memory - Palmira preferred to summarize her state of mind in the obituary published today in the Unione: "We will always remember the love and goodness you gave and your smile will survive in the memory of all who knew and loved you" .

To commemorate the memory of Antonio Carta also to the new generations many important things remain with his name, the avenue next to the Delogu hospital , the family home and the conference room of the Oristano medical association . Instead, friends and colleagues remember him every year with a motorcycle rally that takes place in the Guilcier .

The tragedy - In the early hours of February 24, 2004, a Cessna 500 aircraft coming from Rome and bound for Cagliari crashed on the slopes of Mount Cresia in the municipality of Sinnai. The plane was carrying a heart that had been taken from a donor at the San Camillo hospital in Rome and was destined for a patient awaiting a transplant at the Brotzu hospital in Cagliari.

The rescuers who rushed to the crash site found the remains of the plane almost disintegrated and recovered the remains of the bodies of the victims: Alessandro Ricchi, Antonio Carta, GianMarco Pinna, Helmut Zurner, Thomas Giacomuzzi and Daniele Giacobbe . The container with the heart that was being transported for transplantation was also found, clearly useless.

At the head of the cardiac surgery team was Dr. Alessandro Ricchi , 52, from Pavullo Frignano, in the province of Modena, director of the transplant center of the Brotzu hospital in Cagliari where he had worked since 1987 when he was called by the cardiac surgeon Valentino Martelli with whom he collaborated on 'Italian Hospital in London.

The second victim, the 38-year-old heart surgeon Antonio Carta , originally from Ghilarza, one of the youngest doctors on Ricchi's team, had been called to join the heart surgery department of the Brotzu hospital and had proved to be one of the most valuable collaborators.

The third victim was the technician Gian Marco Pinna , 48 years old, originally from Sassari, married with two children, who worked in the cardiac surgery department of the Brotzu hospital since 1988.