A tragic situation on board the Atlantia boat in Hvar saw an Italian family poisoned by carbon monoxide, with 57-year-old Eugenio Vinci passing away on board the boat and the boat's owner and captain arrested, facing eight years behind bars. 

As Slobodna Dalmacija/Ivica Markovic writes on the 17th of August, 2019, the Intensive Care Unit for Children at KBC Split has been taking care of the treatment and recovery of a five-year-old Italian boy and his nine-year-old sister, who were both poisoned with carbon monoxide on board the Atlantia boat on Hvar a few days ago.

As has been learned unofficially, but from very reliable sources, the nine-year-old girl, although still sedated, has been showing some encouraging neurological reflexes when tested, which allows a cautious level of optimism that there may be no major neurological deficit when the girl is awakened from her artificially induced coma. That, however, won't be known until she is woken up.

Of course, as can unfortunately often the case with medicine, two plus two may not necessarily always equal four, therefore when it comes to her neurological condition, no one can say with 100 percent certainty how well she will be when she wakes up. But the first information about her neurological reflexes is more than satisfactory for now. She appears to be doing better than her younger brother, who is also in a coma.

As for her five-year-old brother, according to unofficial information, he shows weaker neurological reflexes, which could tragically be be due to major changes which have taken place in his brain, but also due to the very deep sedation he is being kept under currently.

Owing to the above, and the fact that the young boy's reflex tests have delivered less satisfactory results than those of his older sister, there is growing fear of a possible neurological deficit being obvious from the moment when he is brought back out of his coma and regains his consciousness.

We will continue to provide updates to this utterly horrendous situation which occurred on Hvar as and when we know more.

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