Alessandro Di Battista leaves Cuba for Italy after two weeks of hospitalization

After two weeks in hospital, Alessandro Di Battista has finally left Cuba for Italy. The former parliamentarian of the 5 Star Movement managed to board an air ambulance and is expected in Rome on Saturday 12 September. Last August 28, while he was on the island to prepare a reportage, the activist suffered severe head pain and was admitted to the Santa Clara hospital, only to be transferred, given the severity of his conditions, to the most equipped facility in Havana, Hermanos Ameijeiras.

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«Happy homecoming, my brother. See you in Rome in a few hours. Thanks again to all the Cuban doctors who took care of Alessandro during these endless days." Thus Luca Di Giuseppe, president of Schierarsi, the former parliamentarian's association, celebrated the news on his social channels, also posting the photo of the plane that will take him home.

That something was moving in the right direction, with his imminent return to Italy, was clear from Thursday night. “We would like to thank the doctors, nurses and physiotherapists who are taking care of him in these hours before returning to Italy,” Schierarsi wrote in a post published on Facebook.

This is actually the second attempt to transfer Di Battista to Italy. He was initially supposed to return to Rome on the afternoon of September 5, but on the same day Schierarsi announced on Instagram that the return had been postponed, asking "everyone to maintain maximum discretion and prudence in the dissemination of information while awaiting further updates". The cause was the need to subject the former parliamentarian to an emergency operation.

The return to Italy requires a strict safety protocol imposed by the activist's health conditions. The air ambulance will have to fly at low altitude to avoid excessive pressurization of the cockpit and will have to make one or more stopovers. According to what we learn, upon his arrival, it is likely that Di Battista will be directly transferred to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic. A team from the Roman hospital made up of a neurosurgeon and a resuscitator had reached him in Cuba in recent days to provide medical assistance.