Prosecutors are investigating a
seven-member surgical team on allegations of involuntary
manslaughter in the case of a 10-year-old girl who died Saturday
on the operating table, judicial sources said Monday.
Giovanna lost her life at a private Rome clinic during what
doctors reportedly told her parents would be a routine operation
to reconstruct her right eardrum, which had suffered lesions due
to repeated infection.
Prosecutors are investigating two ear, nose and throat
specialists, an anesthetist, and four other medical personnel
present during surgery.
An autopsy was scheduled for Monday to determine the cause
of death.
Carabinieri military police seized all relevant
documentation at the Villa Mafalda clinic, which offers
specialized diagnostics, surgery, and obstetrics.
"How can my daughter be dead because of a banal ear
operation?" said the girl's father.
The clinic defended the doctors.
"Our doctors fought a long time to save the child's life.
Our trust in their judgment is indisputable," the clinic said.
Villa Mafalda has been under the spotlight before.
Prosecutors last year placed four of its medical staff,
including a cardiologist and an anesthetist, under investigation
for involuntary manslaughter after writer Alberto Bevilacqua
died there on September 9.
The 79-year-old novelist and filmmaker had been admitted to
the clinic eleven months earlier with heart problems.
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