Reggio Emilia, 15 October 2024- It has passed exactly one year since the sad day of the death of Samuel Dilas, 24 years old, basketball player born in Novellara and registered for Virtus Lumezzane, in Serie B. One death following hospitalization for a serious pulmonary crisis. A mourning that had profoundly affected various communities: not only that of Novellara, where Samuel grew up, or Lumezzane (Brescia)where he played, but also Forlì: he remained for three seasons, from 2018 to 2021, at the 2015 Basketball team. In the city, fans and others were shocked by his broken life at a very young age. After Forlì he also played a season in Avellino. The National Basketball League (LNP) then named the award given to the best player in the championship after him. Very many the messages of condolence that a year ago reached the bereaved family members: the parents Torsen and Chiara, the sister Maia, the grandparents… An investigation had been opened into Dilas’ death by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Brescia, to try to shed light on the nature of the complications that later proved fatal. This is why an autopsy was also ordered. Here is the open letter that Samuel’s mother wanted to send, one year after the tragedy.
I am Samuel Dilas’ motherthe 24-year-old boy from Novellara, who died on 15 October 2023 at the Spedali Civili of Brescia. I’ve been thinking about what to write for months, but every time I start I get stuck; it’s all terribly tiring, but I promised myself that I would write what I think and now the time has come. For better or worse I will write anyway, it’s something I have to do.
Today marks a year from the most traumatic event of my life, months in which in addition to the inhuman pain, I had to deal with a thousand things to get answers, my answers. The long-awaited autopsy it arrived in March 2024: 72 pages, printed, read and studied in detail. I thought I would finally have the answers I was looking for, but that wasn’t the case.
They wrote the name of the catastrophic syndrome that affected Samuel: syndrome with severe prognosis, characterized by the rapid onset of thrombi, both venous and arterial, in multiple organs, causing a multiple organ failure. The main triggering factors are major inflammation.
But as a mother, I wanted to know more. I wanted to know if it could be prevented and therefore save… Yes, agreed, it is a very rare syndrome. But that’s not enough justification for me. Samuel entered the emergency room on October 2, 2023 for dyspnea and high feverwhere they hospitalized him for bad pneumonia.
He was in prison for a long time because he wasn’t improving and continued to have breathlessness and fever; me still today I don’t know about this pneumonia what virus or bacteria caused it, but I know it was abnormal.
Well, after 11 days they thought about discharging him because according to them he had improvedfor a day he no longer had any bouts of fever, but the levels of inflammation remained very high. The day after his resignation my son called the ambulancehe wasn’t well, fever, dyspnea and severe pain in his leg, he never left from there.
Why did they discharge him? Why were his inflammation values still very high after 11 days in hospital? Why… Why? Well, I don’t want to make public everything that left me perplexed when reading the medical records. I would like to point out that even before the autopsy, I, ignorant of the matter, already knew that it wasn’t a blood clot that killed my sonas had been erroneously reported. I want to thank all the amazing doctors who responded to my helpful emails, who made themselves available, so they could help me understand.
I also thank those who didn’t feel like it because there was a cause involved. I can understand you: You don’t know me and you didn’t want to expose yourself. In hindsight, it is much easier to make a diagnosis and although I was full of anger, in my heart, I never thought of continuing with a complaint, because my son has no price and I would never have accepted dirty money.
From mom I need to know that they did everything they could, but I think the fact that he was young and athletic didn’t work in his favor. Samuel was an athlete and as such he never complained, accustomed to a thousand sacrifices. For him, basketball was his lifeit was the dream that was coming true and I know he couldn’t wait to get out of the hospital to get back on the pitch…
One day I randomly received a message from my son, I know it was him, who else could have known the hours and hours I spent doing medical research. «Bring doctors an awareness of love that you have inside, with a smile, a little cheerfulness and a pinch of joy”, “Sometimes the search only brings unrest to the heart, you shouldn’t ask yourself too many questions, that’s okay”.
After these incredible messages I understood that there is no going back and my research was wearing out my soul, I said enough. For Samuel. I know maybe things could have gone differently, but everyone can make mistakes.
Perhaps in my heart, a phone call would have been enough by the doctors who treated him. A “we’re sorry”. Well, that would have been enough to melt my anger. I don’t want to feel resentful, but I would really like this message to reach as many doctors as possible, parents shouldn’t fear, they just need to be honest, we only need the truth, be it good or bad, we need it tremendously to begin to process the mourning.
I wish doctors would try to improve themselves more and more, even from mistakes, studying the rarest and most abnormal cases like that of my son, so that Samuel’s death is not in vain. Also because we wonder how this is possible that these years of Covid have not led to greater knowledge of the diagnoses and different treatments for atypical pneumonias that do not respond to normal therapies. Here you are. I would just like this, I am available to have all the documentation available to as many doctors and researchers as possible.
And to people I say: Don’t sue for every little thing to hospitals, doctors now fear us and this is not right, it further weakens the healthcare system… What is money in the face of loss of a loved one? I would like to let the doctors who treated my son know that I love him to death, I would have given everything to save him, but I no longer feel angry. You are human and you can make mistakes even if unintentionally. I hope that in the future: if there will be a 2 meter tall boy and 8, athletic, good and never complains, you will not take his recovery for granted by discharging him. Last thing: I will never understand why my son arrived in the emergency room under code green and even waited before collapsing.
I don’t know the rules of Lombardy, but they should be revised. Boys should have priority. Always. Being young in some cases can be a condemnation. I have already written too much and certainly in a chaotic way, but I could add a thousand things. Thanks to all the people who remember Samuel daily, in their hearts. Thanks to Pallacanestro Lumezzane for being close to us in such a dramatic moment. Thanks to all the tournaments that dedicated space to Samuel’s memory.
Thanks to Pallacanestro Novellara for always believing in him. Thanks to the intensive care unit, I know you did everything you could to save him. Special thanks to my wonderful family, I am alive thanks to you! And last but not least, thanks to my daughter Maia, she is the reason why I fight to stay afloat. To those who wonder where I went, where I disappeared… I reply that I am still aliveI’m fighting to be worthy of the love I have for my children. It will take time, because excessively painful bereavements accentuate the emotionality and make you live in another dimension. I still feel too fragile to return to the world, I need to stay in my own, with my people, with talking animals and infinite skies, where I can find the good, where everything reminds me of Samuel. Life has become difficult for me. I carry my son in my heart forever. I’m proud of you, Samuel. And I thank you for honoring me with your presence, thank you for allowing me to be your mom. Forever. * mother of Samuel Dilas
