Toddler on life support loses donated heart after it was FROZEN as mum desperately appeals to Pope for help

A DESPERATE mum has appealed to the Pope for help after a transplant heart given to her two-year-old son was allegedly frozen.

The toddler is now fighting for his life in critical condition – and cops are investigating whether the donated heart was accidentally transported using dry ice instead of standard ice.

Last year, the child was fighting worsening heart disease and was on the waiting list for a heart transplant.

He was born with cardiomyopathy, a condition which means muscle tissues of the heart become thicker than they should be.

Then, miraculously, a donor heart became available after the tragic death of a four-year-old boy who drowned in a swimming pool in Bolzano, northern Italy.

The heart was transported eight hours south to Naples, to the Monaldi hospital, where it was transplanted into the unnamed two-year-old.

But it didn’t work.

The tot’s mum, Patrizia Mercolino, told Italian TV: “They called me after the operation to say, ‘There is a problem — the heart does not start’.

I didn’t ask too many questions.”

Doctors seemingly didn’t realise that the heart was damaged until after it had been transplanted into the toddler.

The distraught mum said: “My son was fine before the transplant, despite his heart problems he played and smiled.”

Police found that the heart was transported in an ordinary plastic box, not a specialised container usually used to deliver organs.

Their findings suggest that the heart was packed with dry ice, which is much colder than normal ice.

Investigators suggested that the lack of temperature readings meant medics would not have known that the heart was going into a deep freeze.

Six medics are now under formal investigation.

Since the transplant operation, the boy has been on life support, and mum Patrizia visits every day.

She has now begged the Pope for help to find a new heart for her son.

Patrizia said: “My life is now dominated by pain and the desire to have my baby back home.

“I appeal to the Pope to help find a new heart for my son. That’s all I want.”

She has asked her lawyer to contact European hospitals to search for another heart, but doctors are worried that a second transplant operation could be too risky.

Doctors at the Vatican children’s hospital in Rome said that so much time on life support was worsening the toddler’s condition.

They said it was causing complications including lung, liver and kidney damage, which would make another operation dangerous.

Patrizia said: “I hope those doctors are wrong.”