The São Paulo Civil Police investigates the conduct of two medical students reported after publishing a video mocking a young woman who had been subjected to three heart transplants and one of kidney .
Students Gabrielli Farias de Souza and Thaís Caldeira Soares Foffano were reported after the family of Vitória became aware of the video published in February. Patient Vitória Chaves da Silva, 26, died in February 2025, days after the video recording.
According to the São Paulo Public Security Bureau, the case is investigated as an injury through a police inquiry initiated at the 14th Police District of Pinheiros.
The Public Prosecution Service of São Paulo, by means of a note, told the CNN which was filed, on Tuesday (8), a news of fact reporting what happened. “The case is being analyzed by the prosecution,” he said.
THE CNN lawyer Henrique Cataldi, a postgraduate degree in Law and Criminal Procedure from the Damásio College, assessed that in addition to the crime of injury, provided for in Article 140 of the Penal Code, medical students can respond for defamation and psychological violence.
See the penalties:
- Injury: detention of one to six months and fine
- Defamation: detention from three months to one year, plus a fine
- Psychological violence against women: imprisonment from six months to two years and fine
The expert also points out that Article 141 of the Penal Code provides for an increase in the penalty when “the crime against honor is committed by facilitating the dissemination of the offense, as in the present case, where the video was widely shared via social network (Tiktok), expanding the range of damage and improper exposure of the victim”.
“Parallel to criminal liability, conduct can also have consequences in the civil sphere, especially regarding the obligation to compensate for moral damages caused to the victim and his family,” explains Cataldi.
Also according to the lawyer, Gabrielli and Thaís will also be able to suffer academic sanctions in accordance with the Internal Regulations of the institutions ranging from warning to the dismissal of the course.
Colleges response
Gabrielli Farias de Souza and Thaís Caldeira Soares Foffano, who appear in the images, study Medicine at Anhembi Morumbi University in São Paulo, and at the Faculty of Human Health and Ecology (phaseh) in Minas Gerais.
To CNN, in a joint statement, the institutions mourned the episode and sympathized with families. “The account mentioned does not match the principles and values that guide the performance of this educational institution,” says the note. The institutions said they investigate the case.
In the video published on a social network, the students talked about the case of patient Vitória Chaves da Silva, 26. “So, I don’t know. This girl is thinking there’s seven lives? I don’t know,” says one of the students in the recording. The publication was erased from social networks on Tuesday (8).
The video was recorded days before the death of patient Vitória Chaves da Silva, 26. She was hospitalized at the Heart Institute (Incor) of the Clinical Hospital of the University of São Paulo School of Medicine (FMUSP). The cause of the young woman’s death would have been a septic shock and chronic renal failure.
Rare disease
At birth, Vitória was diagnosed with severe congenital heart disease called Ebsstein anomaly, a rare disease that affects the heart valve.
According to a Vitória publication on a social network, the first transplant took place in 2005. The second happened 11 years later, in 2016, due to disease in the coronary veins. The third, and last transplant, took place in 2024.
This content was originally published in know which student crimes that mocked patients can respond on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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