An on-stage hanging during a weekend interactive theater performance in Italy left actor Raphael Schumacher in a coma and on Thursday doctors declared him brain so his organs could be harvested for transplant.
The Italian actor, 27, was performing a hanging scene at Pisa's Lux Theater, said the
BBC News. The play took part at different locations in the theater, allowing spectators to walk from scene to scene. Schumacher's scene was being performed in the theater's courtyard.
The Italian news agency
ANSA said Schumacher recited a monologue in front of one spectator that portrayed the suicide of a 15-year-old and then he was found unconscious and oxygen-deprived a few minutes later,
A medical student saw him trembling, said
CNN, and with the help of a second spectator lowered him to the ground and loosened the noose.
Schumacher didn't respond to treatment at the scene, said BBC News.
"The family and the prosecutor's office have both authorized that his organs be donated, but their removal will be subject to a medical assessment to be performed in the course of the night," said Cisanello Hospital in Pisa in a statement Thursday after a six-hour procedure to determine if Schumacher was brain dead, noted BBC News.
Two directors and two stage technicians were being investigated for Schumacher's death, said ANSA. They could be liable for failing to follow workplace safety regulations, prosecutors told the news agency.
The directors told the Italian newspaper Il Giorno that Schumacher changed the play's scene from a fake gunshot to a hanging without their knowledge, said CNN.
Fans expressed their condolences on social media.
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