A student has revealed that she was nearly killed by a broccoli sandwich that has already killed at least two and left more than a dozen in hospital.
Gaia Vitiello, a 24-year-old student at the Federico II University of Naples, was a customer at a food truck in the town of Diamante, in Calabria.
After eating a sandwich with broccoli in it at the end of a night out, she was left suffering botulism and needing to be kept in intensive care at a nearby hospital.
The languages student said she and her friends all got the same sandwich at 4.30am on August 5, with only one difference: ‘My friends only had mayonnaise, sausage, and chips. I added broccoli. It was the first time I’d ever done that’.
She told local media that just one hour later, she was suffering: ‘I had diarrhea. I thought it was indigestion. The next day, the symptoms worsened. I couldn’t swallow and my legs were shaking.’
After Gaia’s sister took her a nearby clinic, which the student said she didn’t want to do, she was immediately transferred to Annunziata Hospital in Cosenza.
‘If my sister Alessia hadn’t taken me to the hospital by force, I wouldn’t be here today’, Gaia admitted.
Thankfully, she was given the proper medicine and was discharged. She said: ‘I consider myself lucky.’
Last week, 52-year-old artist Luigi Di Sarno died after eating the panini from a food truck in the town of Diamante, in Calabria.
And yesterday, Tamara D’Acunto, 45, also died, and more than a dozen people have been hospitalised.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the outbreak and ordered a nationwide recall of the commercially produced panini that has left 14 people with food poisoning including two teenagers.
Postmortem examinations are being conducted this week as part of the investigation.
The sandwich contained grilled sausages and an Italian summer vegetable called ‘cime di rapa’ or turnip tops, similar to broccoli.
Nine people are being investigated by the authorities, including the owner of the food truck on the seafront in the province of Cosenza whose vehicle as been seized.
Three employers of the company who allegedly made the sandwich are also being investigated, as well as five doctors who treated victims near the city of Cosenza.
The medics are accused of having not acting quickly enough to save the victims, after Mr Di Sarno’s sister alleged that her brother was discharged from hospital despite still feeling sick and later died.
Botulism is a rare but life-threatening condition caused by toxins produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria.
The neurotoxins attack the body’s nervous system, and can cause respiratory muscle failure, paralysis and death.
Di Sarno, an artist and musician originally from Cercola, in the province of Naples, was on holiday in Calabria with his family.
After they ate the sandwich on the Tyrrhenian coast of Cosenza, he began driving back home to Naples. But on the way back he fell ill.
Others were rushed to Annunziata Hospital in Cosenza, including two 17-year-olds and two women in their 40s. Two of the patients were reportedly in a serious condition when they arrived at the intensive care unit.
