It was 1989 when Roberta Rapisardi, 28, turned to the cardiac surgeon Ugolino Livi because of a serious heart disease. On her, in Padua, a heart transplant is performed, the first of Livi in the first person. The surgery is successful, Roberta is fine and after a few years she becomes a mother. However, the same heart disease manifests itself in Benedetta, her daughter. Today the young woman is 25 years old and in October she underwent the same surgery as her mother. Livi always operated on it: it was the last transplant of his career as director of the Cardiac Surgery of Santa Maria della Misericordia in Udine. The story of Roberta and Benedetta is told today by Messaggero Veneto and Il Piccolo.
When Roberta decides to have a child, they go through the newspapers, she knows that heart disease can be at risk of genetic transmission, but she decides to take the risk. Livi says that Roberta “came to give birth in Padua, she wanted the heart surgeon who had transplanted her nearby. At that time there were not many heart transplanted women who had had children. Now it happens almost normally”. After a few years, however, Benedetta manifests the same illness as her mother. Roberta looks for Livi again, who directs her to the center specialized in heart disease directed by Giancarlo Sinagra in Trieste. Here Benedetta is followed for a long time but then, when the situation worsens, the young woman finds herself in the intensive care unit, where she remains two months waiting for a compatible heart. “It was not easy to find – explains Livi – she, small in build, needed a small heart with particular characteristics.
The opportunity has come and today Benedetta is a few weeks after the transplant and is very well “.
“Every morning when I get up – is Roberta’s testimony – instead of thinking ‘I’m a transplant’ I think about living normally for the day. All this helped Benedetta to face the fear of surgery”.
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