The parents of a baby who
died when she was denied a place in Sicilian hospitals attended
an emotional funeral for the infant Thursday.
Tania Egitto, mother of baby Nicole, held the infant's
tiny coffin on her knees in front of the altar at the church of
San Vito the Martyr in the town of Mascalucia in Catania
province.
Next to her was Nicole's father Andrea Di Pietro and the
funeral was celebrated by the Archbishop of Catania, Monsignor
Salvatore Gristina.
Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin told the Lower House on
Wednesday that local officials did not follow the relative
regulations in the case of Nicole, who expired in an ambulance
on the way to Ragusa after there was officially no place for her
in hospitals in the Sicilian city of Catania.
Sicilian Carabinieri probing the case believe that
hospitals might be claiming falsely to be full so as to avoid
being targeted for austerity expenditure cuts.
Nicole was born in a private clinic in Catania on
Wednesday night, but when she developed breathing complications
medical staff quickly tried to move her to a neonatal intensive
care facility in the same city.
However, they were too crowded so an ambulance then tried
to rush the newborn to the intensive care facility at a
pediatric hospital in Ragusa.
The two cities lie about 105 kilometres apart by road.
The baby died en route even as doctors in the ambulance
tried to revive her.
Hundreds of pink and white balloons fluttered outside the
church during the funeral for the baby.
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