Prescription Announced in Medical Malpractice Case of 10-Year-Old's Death

The judges of the Rome Court of Appeal declared that there is no need to proceed due to the statute of limitations for the defendants in the trial for the death of Giovanna Fatello, the 10-year-old girl who died in 2014 during an ear operation at the Villa Mafalda clinic in the Capital. The defendants are the two anesthesiologists Pierfrancesco Dauri and Federico Santilli, who had been convicted at first instance to two years for manslaughter, with a suspended sentence and subject to the payment of a provisional sum of 550,000 euros in favor of the family members. In the hearing of April last year, the deputy general prosecutor had asked to declare the statute of limitations. "The sentence recognizes the criminal responsibility of the two anesthesiologists but the statute of limitations was declared due to the maximum term having elapsed," comments the civil party lawyer Gianluca Tognozzi.