These continue to be hours of great apprehension for the family members of little Rocco Barbagallo, the eleven-year-old originally from Acri, who fell on Tuesday morning from the third floor of a B&B in the Tiburtina area of Rome, where he was with his entire family to take part in his uncle’s graduation celebrations in the afternoon. Instead, mother Santina and father Enrico found themselves catapulted into the worst of nightmares: seeing their son struggle between life and death. Looking out from the balcony of the B&B where he was staying to greet his sister who had come down to play with her little cousin, from the first reconstructions which are confirmed by the heartbreaking words of his mother, who ran towards the windowsill trying in vain to grab it, Rocco would have leaned over excessively, losing his balance and falling into the void for about 12 metres. A van parked in the street right at the height of the balcony from which the boy fell appears to have partially cushioned the impact of the body on the asphalt. Amidst the desperation of the family members and the dismay of passers-by who saw that little body fall to the ground, the 118 health workers, after the first aid on the street, set off on a red code race towards the Bambin Gesù pediatric hospital, where the little one’s life was entrusted in the hands of expert doctors. After an operation that lasted hours and the subsequent stay in the intensive care unit, where the boy appears to be kept in a pharmacological coma, yesterday a message from the family gave hope: «Everything is stable – we read – we have to wait for the 72 hours to pass and then start trying to reduce the pressure in the brain. The rest of the little body is stable, the eyes are still swollen and black but they say it’s normal due to the blow, the organs are fine.”
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