A 19-year-old Italian chef described as “very healthy” has died in a suspected case of coronavirus, after doctors told him he “didn’t have to worry”.

Luca Di Nicola, originally from Nereto in eastern Italy, was working in North London as an assistant chef with his mother Clarissa and her partner Vincenzo.

If the family considered themselves lucky to have avoided Italy during the country’s unprecedented pandemic, it was soon short-lived.

Mr Di Nicola died in hospital last Tuesday evening, from apparent fulminant pneumonia, just half an hour after he was admitted into the intensive care unit.

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media_camera Luca Di Nicola died from a lung complication at 19 years old.

Mr Di Nicola’s heartbroken family said they were struggling to come to terms with their grief because “he was very healthy”.

In hindsight, they suspect he had coronavirus.

“For a week before his death Luca had a fever and a cough and my sister-in-law Clarissa and her partner Vincenzo who lived in the same house also had it,” Mr Di Nicola’s aunt told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

“For a week before his death Luca had a fever and a cough and my sister-in-law Clarissa and her partner Vincenzo who lived in the same house also had it,” she said.

“The London-based doctor gave my nephew some paracetamol. But Luca got worse on March 23. The doctor visited him at home and told him that he was young, strong and that he didn't have to worry about that bad flu.”

However, Mr Di Nicola did have to worry. The next day he had chest pains and his mother noticed his lips were purple before he collapsed.

An ambulance was called but too late. His lungs, which were full of blood and water, collapsed.

He was intubated and immediately taken to the intensive care unit at London's North Middlesex Hospital.

But after half an hour he died, about 7pm.

media_camera The 19-year-old (pictured left with his brother) died in London on Tuesday evening, from apparent fulminant pneumonia.

The family expect a post-mortem to take place, to see if Mr Di Nicola did indeed have COVID-19.

There are fears for his mother and partner who continue to have the same symptoms as him.

After he died, doctors told his mother and mother’s partner they must self-isolate for two weeks. They were not tested and were given paracetamol, according to the Italian media.

Originally published as ‘Healthy’ chef, 19, dies as lungs collapse