Giorgio Napolitano, President Emeritus of the Republic and twice Head of State, was rushed to the Santo Spirito hospital in Rome and then transported to San Camillo, where a medical team led by Professor Francesco Musumeci, a pupil of the most famous heart surgeons of the world, operated on his heart in the night.
The President, who is almost 93 years old and who presided over the first session of the Senate of the new legislature on 24 March, fell ill yesterday afternoon, accusing severe pain in the chest with suspected heart attack while he was in sight of his wife Clio, hospitalized to the Paideia clinic for the aftermath of a fall.
After an immediate consultation with the Santo Spirito, the doctors ascertained a partial laceration of the aorta and consequently decided to transfer the illustrious patient to the San Camillo hospital where Professor Musumeci operated on him during the night. "The surgery was successful, the President encouraged me and has great temper" commented the heart surgeon at the end of the operation. Now Napolitano is in intensive care and the next few hours will be decisive.
Napolitano, first-rate protagonist of all post-war political life, appeared on Sunday on TV, in Fabio Fabio's show, where he recalled the current situation of the Resistance and spoke of the political crisis. "The tendencies to minimize the resurgences of fascism - he argued with his usual clarity and passion - are only a manifestation of ignorance and irresponsibility" because "rights, democracy and freedom have been conquered and reconquered through a long and dramatic history and nobody gave them to us and it is necessary that the new generations do not consider them a legacy to benefit from without wondering where these freedoms come from” .
