A ‘very healthy’ Italian chef living in London has died from coronavirus after doctors told him he had nothing to worry about, it has been reported.
Luca Di Nicola, originally from Nereto in eastern Italy, worked in a family restaurant in Enfield, north London, as an assistant chef with his mother Clarissa and her partner Vincenzo.
The 19-year-old died in the British capital on Tuesday evening, from apparent fulminant pneumonia.
His heartbroken family have said that they are struggling to come to terms with their grief because ‘he was very healthy’. They suspect that he had coronavirus
Luca(left) pictured with his brother
Giada, Luca’s aunt, from Abruzzo in Italy, told La Repubblica: ‘For a week before his death Luca had a fever and a cough and my sister-in-law Clarissa and her partner Vincenzo who lived in the same house also had it.
‘The London based doctor gave my nephew some paracetamol. But Luca got worse on March 23. The doctor visited him at home and told him that he was young, strong and that he didn’t have to worry about that bad flu.’
However the following day his situation deteriorated as he started to have chest pains and his mother noticed his lips were purple before he collapsed.
His mother and her partner called an ambulance and paramedics revived him but his lungs – that were full of blood and water – collapsed.
He was intubated and immediately taken to the intensive care unit at London’s North Middlesex Hospital.
But after half an hour he died at around 7pm.
Romina, Luca’s aunt who lives in Glasgow, says a post-mortem will take place and he will be tested to see if he had coronavirus.
She added that she is heartbroken, saying ‘we don’t know anything – not even where they will move his body’.