Cassation: “Davide Astori’s death could have been avoided”

Know that Davide Astori He could have stopped before the tragedy makes his disappearance even more painful. Davide was found lifeless in his room in a hotel in Udine where Fiorentina was staying waiting to play a championship match. It was the morning of March 4, 2018 And when they arrived, the rescue could only see their death.

Following the death of the captain of the Viola, an investigation was opened that led to a conviction for false ideological to the doctors Giorgio Galanti, Loira Toncelli and Pietro Amedeo Modesti. Now, the Court of Cassation has filed the reasons concerning the sentence of Professor Galanti, former director of Sports Medicine of the Careggi hospital in Florence, for the accusation of manslaughter.

To stop beating the heart of Davide Astori was a ventricular fibrillation due to A cardiomyopathy arrhythmogen never diagnosed.

“Davide Astori’s death would have been avoided or, at least, postponed to significantly rear era, if Professor Galanti had prescribed the necessary exams, allowing a correct diagnosis of the pathology” reads the judgment of the Cassation.

“The arrhythmia observed in 2014 and then again in 2016 and 2017, in a professional athlete subjected daily to intense physical efforts (between training sessions and played matches) had to induce, on the basis of a good clinical-welfare practice, even in the absence of familiarity and symptomaticity, to submit the athlete to more in -depth cardiological investigation (Holter in 24 hours, according to the agreed opinion of experts, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging) to exclude the pathological nature associated with heart disease of the aforementioned extrasistolia “.

Professor Galanti is mainly contested that he has issued two distinct medical certificates, not prescribing further investigations. The professor thus “discovered from the guidelines in force at the time, failing to prescribe fundamental diagnostic exams for patient safety”.

For the judges of the fourth section of the Supreme Court “the omission, repeated on two distinct occasions, prevented the diagnosis of a potentially lethal pathology in a young professional athlete, with the dramatic consequences that derived from it”.

What is arrhythmogen cardiomyopathy

“Arrhythmogen cardiomyopathy is a rare condition characterized by the presence of fibrosis areas (scar tissue) in the left and/or right part of the heart, and associated with a high risk of developing cardiac arrhythmias, potentially fatal”, explains to Vanity Fair Professor Carlo Racani, cardiologist of the Italian Cardiac Italian Association and for years health manager of the Emergency Department Aeroporti of Rome.

«Arrhythmogen cardiomyopathy is a genetically determined disease. In about 40-50% it is possible to identify a mutation in genes that codify for “desmosomial” proteins, proteins that form the junction bridges between one cell and another. Following the genetic mutations these proteins are “defective”, alter the contacts between the cells of the heart that die and are replaced by fibrosis ».

«Arrhythmogen cardiomyopathy can remain asymptomatic or paucisyntomatic for several years. The first symptoms of arrhythmogen cardiomyopathy usually develop between 20 and 45 and are represented in particular by ventricular arrhythmias and cardiac imbalance symptoms. In some cases, the disease can debut with a cardiovascular arrest “.