An Italian doctor has been placed under investigation after giving his cat a Cat scan at a hospital in Aosta before performing a life-saving operation on the feline.
Gianluca Fanelli took the animal, called Athena, to Umberto Parini hospital in the northern Italian region, where he is a manager of the radiology unit, after she fell from a roof.
“She was between life and death,” Fanelli said. “I knew I could only save her with a quick intervention.”
Athena underwent a brief Cat scan before Fanelli performed pneumothoracic surgery on her in the unit’s angiography suite.
She survived the ordeal, but the local health authority undertook an internal inquiry into the incident and referred the case to prosecutors in Aosta, who said Fanelli could face charges of wasting public money and depriving patients of essential services.
In his defence, Fanelli said he used the hospital equipment after hours, when all the X-rays scheduled for the day had been completed and no other patients were booked in for urgent tests.
Athena, who plunged six floors from the roof of the building where the family live, was one of five stray cats Fanelli said he had “rescued from the street and saved from extreme conditions”.
“I’m sorry if all of this led to a violation of the rules,” he said, adding that he was ready to reimburse the hospital if his actions proved costly.
“Being a doctor means carrying out a mission. The driving force is precisely the life that flows in the eyes of those who entrust themselves to your care. And this life flows in every living being. If my cat had died, I would never have been able to forgive myself, especially because my children adore her.”
Fanelli is married to Nicoletta Spelgatti, a senator for the League party. “My husband saved a life. That’s it,” she said.
