A 50-year-old woman and her 15-year-old daughter died in Italy following a serious illness after Christmas Eve dinner. The deaths occurred at Cardarelli Hospital, in Campobasso, Molise region, and are being investigated for suspected food poisoning. The teenager’s father, aged 55, remains in serious condition in intensive care in Rome.
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Gianni Di Vita, his wife Antonella and their daughter Sara went to the emergency room on Christmas Day, reporting vomiting and severe stomach cramps. According to the local press, they were released after first aid, with suspected gastroenteritis. The condition, however, persisted and the family returned to the hospital on Friday (26), after being discharged again.
On Saturday (27), the three were admitted to Cardarelli Hospital for the third time. Sara died a few hours after admission. Then Antonella couldn’t resist either. Gianni was transferred to Rome in a medical helicopter on Sunday and remains in intensive care. The couple’s other daughter, aged 20, did not attend the dinner and showed no symptoms, as did the other guests.
Researchers analyze foods eaten at dinner, including fish, seafood and mushrooms. Police collected items from the family’s home for laboratory testing. The teenager’s friends told local media they last spoke to Sara on Boxing Day, when she thought hospital treatment would be enough and did not imagine her condition would deteriorate so quickly.
Initially treated as a case of gastroenteritis, the medical investigation began to consider more serious hypotheses, such as botulism, listeriosis, fulminant hepatitis or even possible chemical poisoning. The head of the intensive care unit at Cardarelli Hospital, Dr Vincenzo Cuzzone, said the symptoms began after a meal and there was liver failure followed by a “cascade of events with extraordinary speed”, culminating in multi-organ failure.
In a statement, Campobasso Mayor Antonio Tommasone deplored the deaths and said the city was experiencing “hours of great sadness.” The authorities are awaiting the results of the analyzes to determine the exact cause of what happened.
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