A dad-of-five had his legs amputated after falling ill with a life-threatening condition just hours into a family holiday in Italy. Alessandro Luciano, 35, came down with a fever on the first day of his summer trip to the country’s southern regions with his wife Iljhama and their five children in August of last year. He soon also noticed black spots on his limbs and a strange burning sensation – and rushed to a local hospital.
The family’s doomed getaway only went downhill from there, as he was diganosed with a meningococcal type B infection with rare and serious complications. The electrician was urgently transferred to a facility in his hometown of Stuttgart, Germany, where surgeons amputated his lower legs, four fingers on his right hand and part of a finger on his left. Iljhama, who met her husband when they were both 14-years-old, said the family holiday to Italy had followed “many difficult months” caring for her mother, but ended up posing a fresh “nightmare” in its place.
“We were not allowed to be happy,” she said. “Our hearts shattered into more than 1,000 pieces when [Alessandro] contracted meningococcus nesseria purpura fulminans. [But] he survived, and thankfully his nervous system was not damaged.”
The couple had renovated their fifth-floor apartment in Stuttgart before heading to Italy last year, but the same home has now become a major obstacle for Alessandro’s day-to-day mobility.
Iljhama has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of installing an external elevator, after learning that putting a stair lift inside the building goes against its regulations.
“I currently carry him up and down the five floors twice a day using a stair climber – a total weight of over 100kg,” she said.
“This not only puts a heavy strain on my health, it also takes away his last vestiges of independence and dignity.
“A stair lift is not possible under building regulations and modern wheelchairs with caterpillar drive are also excluded due to the small platform areas in the stairwell.
“An external elevator is our only hope, but this costs tens of thousands of Euros – and we cannot finance it.
“The fact that he’s now completely dependent on me, barely mobile, hurts him deeply and it tears me apart inside.”
The online campaign has so far raised over (Euro 49,826) of its £121,596 (Euro 140,000) goal.