4 specialists appointed –

The investigating judge of Rome has ordered an expert opinion, as part of an evidentiary incident, to establish the causes of the death of the journalist Andrea Purgatori, who died in July last year. Four doctors are being investigated on charges of manslaughter in the proceedings. The judge appointed four specialists who will have 90 days to answer questions relating to the cause of death, presence of any metastasis and establish when the heart infection started. As part of the investigation, the technical consultants of the Prosecutor’s Office, who carried out the autopsy and histological investigations, filed a consultancy report which «in a nutshell highlights that the journalist, despite suffering from metastatic lung cancer, died due to consequences of an infective endocarditis which induced widespread systemic embolization in the patient. This pathology was not identified in time to be able to promptly initiate appropriate treatment, and precisely in relation to its omitted and in any case late diagnosis” a cardiologist was investigated.

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The consultants of the Prosecutor’s Office have also identified «serious critical issues in the reporting of the MRI of the brain on 8 May 2023, already subject to censorship by the journalist’s family; in this report, in fact, brain metastases of the primary tumor (as mentioned in the lung) were diagnosed without margin of doubt, the presence of which was instead excluded by the autopsy and histological findings – it is underlined in the request for an evidentiary hearing advanced by the prosecutor – the report, furthermore , did not indicate the possibility that the brain lesions highlighted by the MRI had an ischemic nature.” On this circumstance, in addition to two other doctors, a fourth doctor was also registered in the register of suspects who «despite not having had direct relationships with the patient, with the family members and with other doctors, was nevertheless a signatory of the report».

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In the request signed by the prosecutor Giorgio Orano, “in addition to the absolute relevance, also the opportunity of an expert assessment in the cross-examination of the parties” is highlighted. «It is necessary to underline that the technical consultants of the Public Prosecutor have expressly left the final decisions on the possible responsibility of the signatories of the report to the technical evaluation of a neuro-radiologist specialist». As regards the evaluation of the diagnostic and therapeutic course, «also in terms of identifying the responsibilities of healthcare workers and the causal link, specialist neurological, cardiological and infectious disease skills would be used; they appear indispensable to validate the framework of the technical checks on the clinical course of Purgatori and on the ascertainment of the causes of death” we read in the request for an evidentiary hearing granted today by the judge.