Death of Domenico Caliendo: the evidentiary incident set at the Monaldi in Naples

The investigating judge of Naples Mariano Sorrentino has scheduled for the next 12 and 13 November the examination and cross-examination on the evidentiary incident as part of the investigation into the death of little Domenico Caliendo, the almost two and a half year old child who died last February 21 following the failure of a heart transplant performed on 23 December 2025 in the Monaldi hospital in Naples. In November we will discuss the super-expertise - around 600 pages - filed yesterday by the three professors appointed by the Prosecutor's Office as consultants, namely Biagio Solarino, Ugolino Livi and Ferdinando Luca Lorini.

An unrepeatable technical assessment in which the professionals answered the questions posed by the investigating judge, relating in particular to the choices made after the transplant, which was carried out anyway, despite the heart being unusable due to the low temperatures. The judge asked to verify the conduct adopted by the doctors when the child was connected to the ecmo in Monaldi's intensive care, and to evaluate the reasons behind the decision to exclude the possibility of using the "berlin heart", the so-called extracorporeal artificial heart, which in the opinion of the lawyer Francesco Petruzzi, lawyer of the Caliendo family, and his consultants, could have given a better chance for a second transplant. There are seven doctors investigated by the Neapolitan prosecutor's office for Domenico's death.

Lawyer: 'According to the investigating judge's report, the artificial heart would have saved Domenico'

"If within 72 hours he had been connected to the Berlin Heart, the extracorporeal artificial heart, Domenico would have been retransplantable and would have had a success rate of over 70%, the investigating judge's experts write this in their 553-page report, which is why I ask that the Prosecutor's Office evaluate the possibility of contesting voluntary manslaughter instead of manslaughter". This was declared by the lawyer Francesco Petruzzi, lawyer for the family of little Domenico.