An Italian woman died in a holiday flat in Spain after being sent home from hospital twice with chest pain and difficulty breathing
A holidaymaker has tragically passed away in a Spanish holiday flat after being sent home from hospital twice.
Letizia Ciampi started having trouble breathing and chest pain shortly after her flight touched down on the morning of 31 December. Her mate took her to A&E, where she had an X-ray.
Doctors reportedly found her in good health and discharged her, suggesting that stress was likely the cause. They recommended further tests upon her return home and reassured her there was nothing urgent to worry about.
However, back at the flat she was renting in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, her symptoms persisted and that afternoon, she was taken back to the hospital by ambulance, where she was again discharged after receiving IV fluids and medication.
She then sent her friend a final message, saying she didn’t feel up to the New Year’s Eve dinner they had planned. The next day, 1 January, her friend, who resides on Fuerteventura, tried to ring her but got no response, reports the Mirror.
Worried, he tried to get in touch with the flat’s landlord, managing to make contact only the following day.
Firefighters had to force the door open, which had been locked from the inside. The 47 year old was discovered curled up on the bed, with a few drops of blood on the sheet.
She was no longer breathing. Letizia, from Bagno a Ripoli near Florence, Italy, worked as a sales agent for a food company.
She was athletic, health-conscious, a fitness enthusiast, and loved playing padel. She had also been active in politics, previously standing for election in Florence with Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom party.
She had journeyed to Fuerteventura for a brief winter sunshine holiday and to see her friend. “Never a warning sign, just a bit of flu in the days before leaving for the Canaries,” her heartbroken friend Patrizia Faraoni told Italian media.
“But if she went to the emergency room there twice, it clearly means she was really unwell.”
Spanish authorities have ordered a post-mortem, scheduled for today, to determine whether her death was a tragic accident or a case of medical negligence.
Italian media have speculated she may have suffered a pulmonary embolism or pulmonary oedema that medics failed to detect. Her mother told Italian media: “She was all I had, it was just the two of us, my beloved daughter. I don’t know how to go on.”