5-year-old crushed to death by granite table during family wedding

A wedding in Illinois, United States took a tragic turn when Luca Berlingerio was fatally injured at the venue on Friday, September 4. The five-year-old boy sustained head injuries after a heavy granite tabletop fell on him. Even though he received immediate medical attention he did not recover from his wounds. The hotel where the incident occurred extended their condolences to the family. The child's death is being treated as accidental.

Luca was attending a wedding reception at The Drake Hotel in Oak Brook, Chicago with his parents Simone and Anna Berlingerio. Luca was with the other children playing in one area of the reception hall. He eventually managed to climb on top of a table next to a sofa and was lying on it. When the other children began leaving the area, he got up to leave with them.

The child began sliding off the table while trying to get off. To try and steady himself he grabbed the edges of the table. This caused the tabletop to come loose and fall on the child. Surveillance footage from the reception hall captured the fatal accident.

The impact from the heavy object knocked the child out. His family found him crushed by the table shortly after the accident occurred. They discovered that the child was unresponsive and emergency services were immediately alerted of the accident.

Before emergency services arrived at the hotel on North York Road, an emergency room doctor who had been attending the wedding began performing CPR. Luca remained unresponsive even while being taken to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital. The doctors at the hospital tried to stabilise the child's condition. However, the severity of the head injury was too much for the child to recover. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

On September 10, DuPage County Coroner's Office revealed the name of the child and confirmed that the death was accidental. The Daily Mail shared a statement by the hotel, wherein they wrote that the staff was "heartbroken" by the incident.

Luca's funeral took place on Saturday, September 12 at Cumberland Chapels Funeral Home. A GoFundMe had been set up to help Simone and Anna fund the funeral and pay off the medical expenses.