Giada Scalise fell into a coma while watching her beloved Juventus play in late January. Her family asked the Italian club to help wake her, and it put its legendary star, del Piero, on the case.
The 37-year-old sent an audio recording that said, “‘Hello Giada, this is Alessandro del Piero. I hope you’ll wake up and come back to us as soon as possible to watch many of our games.”
Nurses at the hospital in Cosenza, Italy, played the tape on a daily basis. She moved her hand in response to one of the messages and, within 24 hours, was fully awake from her two-week coma.
“This revival was wonderful,” Scalise’s father said. “There are no words, we are overflowing with joy and gratitude for everyone: for the doctors who have worked and watched our little girl and the love that came from on high.”
Del Piero’s encouragement will cement his legacy in Italian soccer. He has already won a UEFA Champions League 1996, scored a ridiculous goal in the next year’s final (Juventus lost), won the FIFA World Cup in 2006, won numerous Serie A titles, and even brought Juventus back from the dead — it spent one season in Serie B — in 2007.
However, his latest feat may be the greatest of them all.
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Photo via Flickr/frederic jon
