In the courtroom on Piazzale Clodio, the words of Biagio Nuovo and Francesca Favaloro became sobs. They were the parents of Thomas Nuovo, who died at the age of 44 on December 15, 2020 after a via crucis that began in April 2018, when the dentist he went to, Marco I., who is now on trial for murder, diagnosed him with superficial gingivitis, not melanoma.
RECONSTRUCTION
«Thomas had a small spot that bothered his gums and that’s why he went to that dentist», begins the story of Francesca Favaloro. The year was 2018. The diagnosis of melanoma, despite widespread swelling, was only discovered on January 21, 2019. Very late, according to the District Attorney’s Office. “When the diagnosis came, Thomas already had a three-year-old son and his wife was pregnant,” the woman recalled, crying. “Since then he has had four operations. He asked me: “Can I come and stay with you after the operation? I don’t want my son to see me like this.” And I told him: “yes of course Thomas, our house is always open”. And he remained with us until the day he died.” «He told me “Mom, I’m hungry”, but he couldn’t eat – recalls the woman – so I mixed everything for him, gave him baby food.” “He was aware that he was dying, because despite interventions he was not well”, she continued.
Thomas’s mother’s pain became unbearable when she recalled the day when «she called her sister to tell her that she had chosen the grave, the casket and the clothes for the funeral. This is something that cannot be forgotten. It’s almost five years since his death and I think about him every day.”
The pain experienced by Biagio Nuovo, Thomas’ father, has not changed either: «They say that certain things pass with time, but instead I miss my son more and more every day. He’s a camper, he often takes me with him. But now I’m depressed, I don’t even want to go out.” Later, Thomas’s father explained: “My son is a business consultant, he had clients in this dentist’s building who advised him to contact him.” From there, the beginning of a long ordeal. “He understood very well that he was leaving – his father also remembered – and began to create his own environment of death.” Finally, Massimiliano Gelordi, a colleague and good friend of Thomas, sat on the witness table. Who described him as «an extraordinary person with great abilities. Some customers still remember him today.” “He was an athletic kid and conscious of his physique. He was always sure that what he was suffering from was not an ordinary abscess, but something more serious. Our colleagues made fun of him, calling him a hypochondriac. And he was always right.”
At the end of the trial, as he left the courtroom, the father was inconsolable: “Whoever loses a parent is an orphan, whoever loses a spouse is a widower. But we who lose a child, who are we?
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