An article by the New York Daily News has gone viral after claiming that a 72-year-old Italian priest died from his coronavirus infection after sacrificing his ventilator so a younger patient could use it instead.
News of the priest’s sacrifice has elicited reactions from all quarters with, among others, American filmmaker Ava DuVernay, taking to Twitter to react to the news.
Fr. Giuseppe Berardelli, a 72-year-old priest who gave a respirator (that his parishioners had purchased for him), to a younger patient (whom he did not know), has died from #coronavirus.
"Greater love has no person…" (Jn 15:13) https://t.co/qXQ6knoE6n via @Araberara pic.twitter.com/uKxRNghire
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) March 24, 2020
Background
As of March 27, Italy currently has over 80,000 coronavirus cases with over 8,000 and 10,000 deaths and recovering patients respectively (see our live tracker for up to date numbers). Italy has exceeded China as the country with the highest death toll thus becoming the epicentre of the pandemic.
Father Giuseppe Berardelli, the community priest of Casnigo, Italy, is, tragically, one of the 50 priests that have died in Italy after being infected with the outbreak.
Verification
The original claim that Berardelli had chosen to give his respirator to a younger coronavirus patient was shared by Italian media site, Araberara. Additionally, Jesuit Priest, James Martin also shared the claim about Berardelli’s sacrifice and called him a, “Martyr of Charity”.
However, the secretary-general of Berardelli’s community, Fr. Giulio Dellavite told the Catholic News Agency that the claim was false. “There was not a donated respirator. There have not been any respirators coming from outside of the hospital,” (Fr. Giulio Dellavite).
Yahoo! News has also reported that the claim was false.
Verdict
The claims that Italian priest Giuseppe Berardelli died because he chose to give his respirator to another patient are false.
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