Press Interpreter

10/11/05 -- The investigation centers on the three transsexuals who were in the apartment that night. Discharge from the resuscitation unit possible Wednesday

TORINO - Lapo Elkann's* condition is rapidly improving. He was admitted to Torino's Mauriziano hospital yesterday after a drug overdose. The latest medical bulletin says as much, explaining that he's still in a pharmacological coma and that "further verifications to clear up the prognosis as soon as possible" are expected today. The rest of the medical news should arrive around 5:30 in the afternoon. "Everything is going very well, we're very calm, and you'll see good news in tomorrow's bulletin. I'd imagine you can gather that from the context," Carlo Marino, the director general of the Mauriziano hospital, affirmed after briefly entertaining questions with the director of the Resuscitation center, Giuseppe Spina. Medical sources have also mentioned a minor crisis that came about this afternoon and was overcome, defined as one typical of a situation like young Elkann's.

Meanwhile, the investigation continues into the events involving the grandson of [Avvocato] Agnelli**: up 'till now, no one's name has been inscribed in the register of investigated individuals, nor has any accusation of crime been formulated. Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, expected in Brescia for the inauguration of the Museum of Labor and Industry, said she couldn't participate in the event because of commitments she couldn't postpone. As far as is known, the president of Confindustria (the Italian employers' federation) arrived in Torino to comfort the Agnelli family and to be close to Lapo Elkann after the incident.

THE VISIT OF FAMILY MEMBERS

Margherita Agnelli and Alan Elkann, accompanied by their daughter Ginevra, spent two hours in the intensive care unit, first at their son's bedside, then talking with the doctors caring for him. Alan Elkann was the first to arrive at the hospital, shortly before 4 in the afternoon, followed by Margherita Agnelli and Ginevra a half-hour later.

THE DOSSIER - A file has been opened at the Torino Palace of Justice, called "Acts Relative to...", against unknown parties. Two magistrates of the Prosecutor's Office of the republic of Torino will lead the investigation. For now, no criminal charges have been filed, but the verifications about what actually happened in the apartment at via Marochetti 21, where the young manager of Fiat spent the night between Sunday and Monday, are still in progress. The Mobile Squad is conducting the investigations. They're trying to understand where the drugs Lapo Elkann used were acquired (above all cocaine and possibly heroin, among other substances) and, in particular, whether the illness was caused by a poorly-cut slice.

THE RECONSTRUCTION - Investigators have determined that the young manager arrived around 11 o'clock Sunday night at the small, ground-floor apartment of "Lino B.," a transsexual fifty-something from [the Italian region of] Puglia, also known by the name of Patrizia. Two others, an Italian and a Brazilian — also transsexual — arrived later that night. The three were found by the police, who interrogated them at length yesterday. They denied using controlled substances, maintaining that Lapo Elkann brought them and that he would have been the only one who took them while he was there. Then, left alone with Lapo, Lino B. fell asleep. When he woke up a little before 9 a.m., he noticed that the Avvocato [Agnelli]'s grandson was groaning and grumbling and immediately called 118. [Lapo] was taken to the Mauriziano hospital in an ambulance, where he's still in the resuscitation department. As soon as he's in a condition to answer questions, the scion of the Torinese house [Agnelli] will be interrogated by the investigating authorities, who want to get a grip on the events in which he was involved."

THE NOON MEDICAL BULLETIN - "The clinical condition and the breathing parameters of the patient, Lapo Elkann, are rapidly improving. Today further verifications will be carried out to clear up the prognosis as soon as possible." This is according to professor Giuseppe Spina, director of the resuscitation department of the Torino's Mauriziano hospital, where the young man has been since yesterday morning. "Elkann is still sedated," the director continued, "and thus in a pharmacological coma. Today we'll take further measures to verify his conditions. These will be the usual lab and radiographic tests." The director denied that the young man was struck by a heart attack yesterday, and he didn't give certain estimates on [Elkann's] recovery time, nor did he want to presuppose the possible consequences of the coma. "It's still too early to arrive at any conclusions. The next medical statement is scheduled for October 12 at noon," professor Spina concluded as he went back into the department to visit Lapo Elkann. Meanwhile, speaking in general terms and not specifically about young Elkann, the director added: "A lot of guys in dramatic conditions definitely pass through my department. The majority recover successfully, but everything differs from individual to individual and depends on the substances that were taken. Above all, we provide respiratory assistance and attend to the resumption of general conditions, but I repeat, a lot depends on the physical condition of the individual."

"DINNER WITH COKE" - On [the show] Porta a Porta Monday night, the revelation made by count Gelasio Gaetani D'Aragona Lovatelli, a friend of Lapo's: "It also happened that during dinner, at the moment of the aperitif, he was passing the tray with the cocaine. It seemed very tactless to me..." This was just one affirmation among a series of declarations - not all directly connected, however, to the Elkann incident - made live by the count speaking of the distribution, as in certain social classes, of the cocaine. In fact, the count said that 92 percent of those he associates with use controlled substances, "as well as their children, unfortunately...." And in the past, he has happened to be a dinner guest and, at the moment of the aperitif, witnessed the offering of cocaine instead of a glass of wine or champagne.

[Full Article]

* The 27-year-old heir to the Italian automaker Fiat.

** Avvocato Agnelli is Fiat's head.

[This article is from Il Corriere della Sera, a major Italian daily based in Milano]

--Translated By Chris Drake

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http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2005/10_Ottobre/11/lapo.shtml