Renzo Salvatore Antonelli, the two-year-old boy from the northeastern Argentine city of Corrientes who became known as simply "Renzo" after receiving a heart transplant on June 2, died on Friday morning in a Buenos Aires hospital. The boy's death occasioned an outpouring of condolences and saddened reactions on social media, especially Twitter, where the hashtags #Renzo and #Murió Renzo ("Renzo's dead") became hubs for users looking for a place to express their grief.
Maybe he was needed up there, but we're still unaware as why... #renzo
— Vero (@notafraidtobite) August 2, 2013
Renzo couldn't make it, because this Universe needs more angels to fight so much hate with LOVE, PURITY, KINDNESS pic.twitter.com/Y6SgXirmfJ — Rosa Cornejo I. (@apingmysoul) August 2, 2013
Argentine celebrities expressed sadness over the news, including TV anchor Marcelo Tinelli, who wrote, "Such pain. Renzo will always be with us. My immense love goes out to the parents."
Que dolor. Renzo siempre estara con nosotros.Mi amor inmenso para los papas.
— marcelo tinelli (@cuervotinelli) August 2, 2013
Soccer legend Diego Maradona posted a picture on Twitter before the boy's death sending "love and light" and strength to his family.
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Renzo had suffered from a condition called congenital myocardiopathy, which is relatively rare -- about one in every 100,000 children in the U.S. under the age of 18 has it -- and tends to affect children either when they are less than 12 months old or between the ages of 12 and 18 years old. For some seven months, he had been hooked up to an artificial heart as a consequence of the condition. But in early June, the boy had undergone a heart transplant operation, a procedure which gave his family new hope of a full recovery. The operation wasn't a complete success, as his body appeared to be struggling to fully accept the new heart, and for several weeks he experienced complications. Doctors thought a new transplant might be necessary.
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They turned out to be wrong -- his body ended up incorporating the new organ. But before long, Renzo began to experience other health problems which resulted in several heart attacks. The last one caused damage to his brain from which he couldn't recover.
Jorge Ramos, the boy's grandfather, told an Argentine news source that Renzo "went with a smile on his face" and that he "chose to go to rest".
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