Suspicious ‘suicide’ of Italian doctor linked to his trailblazing Covid therapy

His apparent suicide remains inexplicable. The tragedy involving the former head of pneumology at the Carlo Poma hospital in Mantua and real Covid trailblazer, was initially ignored by the mainstream media.

De Donno had been promoting therapeutic plasmapheresis, which made the headlines in 2020 during the first lockdown period when, first, together with Massimo Franchini, head of the Carlo Poma Immunohematology and Transfusion, had begun treating Covid patients with hyperimmune plasma therapy.

The treatment involved the infusion of blood from those who had been infected with the Coronavirus, appropriately treated, into other infected patients. In the period March-April 2020, at the Mantua hospital, about 58 terminally ill Coronavirus patients were given the transfusion with 200 cc of plasma from the patients recovered from Covid-19, rich in immunizing antibodies, and all were saved. The therapy showed stellar results.

“Plasma is democratic because it is the people who donate the plasma to save the people. Probably some will not like it,” De Donno commented on his life-saving therapy.

De Donno also ignored the ban by Health Minister Roberto Speranza on autopsies which led to his discovery of microthrombi in pulmonary embolisms. In May 2020, the pulmonologist found himself having to answer repeated calls from the NAS in charge of collecting information on the case of a pregnant woman who had recovered from Covid-19 thanks to the administration of plasma at the Carlo Poma hospital.

NAS is a body which depends on the Ministry of Health with the task of “supervising the hygienic regulation” following agreements between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defense and the General Command of the Carabinieri.

Giuseppe De Donno recounted how the NAS had tried to put pressure him: “The NAS made a simple phone call to the hospital to gather summary information on what we were doing. After that phone call, I didn’t hear anything and a few days went by.” The plasma treatment was also used on another young patient for a second infusion and the phone calls for NAS suddenly began to multiply.

On social media, De Donno wrote: “If anyone thinks they will be discouraging me they will not succeed. Today, after the hyperimmune plasma infusion, the patient was much better. The fever almost disappeared. Improved oxygenation. Less hours of mechanical ventilation. All as per protocol. We don’t always manage to save everyone. But most of the time, yes. And if anyone wants to try to intimidate me, they’ll have to answer to their conscience. Mine is very clear.”

De Donno did not give up and continued to invest energy and resources on his plasma treatment so that, again in May 2020, he managed to secure funding to research his method at the University of Pavia. The ministry of Health officially also started testing the plasma treatment, and the hospital in Pisa took over the project, completely sidelining the Carlo Poma hospital in Mantua and ignoring De Donno, despite the fact that he had been working on plasma therapy for several months and seeing positive results.

“There are no scientific reasons for this. I believe that the reasons are to be found in another area,” said the doctor. Soon there was no mention of plasma therapy and it was the beginning of real censorship regarding the results of the treatment and the marginalization and persecution of De Donno.

And in April last year, the National Drug Administration rejected De Donno’s hyperimmune plasma therapy on the basis of a trial conferred on a hospital in Pisa.  In Mantua however, of the 46 patients, 43 had recovered and 3 died. Many claim that officials were hostile to professor De Donno because plasma is cheap.

Slandered, downgraded, ignored, cornered and derided by television virologists, the new protagonists on Italian screens, De Donno resigned from the Mantua hospital in early June 2021 and in July decided to open a practice as a general practitioner. “I couldn’t care less about power, fame, going on television. I am a country doctor who has always been a country doctor and I hope to return as soon as possible in the greatest anonymity since I was anonymous until a month ago. This is my goal. The only thing that matters to me is that they give me the tools to save people.”

His sudden, tragic death has alarmed vaccine critics because there are too many elements that do not add up. Investigations are underway but some evidence leaps to the eye even to the less attentive reader. In light of this sudden “suicide”, his remarks in Maglie (Lecce) in June 2020 become even more disturbing: “I am very frank: there was and is the will to hide this treatment. If you look at the media it is only about vaccines, while plasma treatment costs next to nothing. A certain political party tried to silence me. But with me, like this, you get the opposite effect,” concluded the doctor.

“Some 34 thousand people died, But our results tell us that we could have saved at least half of them.” These statements certainly did not presage suicidal reflections but, rather, the desire to do well.  On his Facebook page the professor had written “Democracy is not an option.”

The leader of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, said she was struck and saddened by the tragic news of the death of Dr. Giuseppe De Donno. Carlo Bottani, mayor of Curtatone and a close friend of the doctor, the pulmonology staff of the Mantua hospital and of all those who had had the opportunity to appreciate the his honesty and moral integrity, expressed their disbelief regarding his “suicide”.

The onus is on Colonel Antonello Minutoli, the provincial commander of the Mantua carabinieri, coordinated by the Mantua Public Prosecutor’s Office to exclude any third party liability.

Gabriele Ansaloni, a famous Italian television host is adamant: “They killed him. De Donno is a victim of those who have decreed this massacre we are witnessing, he should be made a saint.”

He added: “A bag of plasma cost 80 euros. […]. He would have helped the sick to respond [to treatment], to get well. […] He would have saved lives, if they had let him work. He would have saved everyone. But the purpose is not to save them,” said Ansaloni.

“With this gesture De Donno motivated even more us who believe in humanity and not in profit, in drug earnings. […] They want to annihilate us, annihilate all the good there is.”