The sudden health crisis suffered by former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne may be "irreversible" after he was admitted to the intensive care unit of a Swiss hospital, according to a Sunday report by the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
Marchionne is being treated in a Swiss hospital with a serious illness after suffering complications following shoulder surgery in June. A Fiat Chrysler spokesman confirmed Marchionne was in Zurich's University Hospital, one of Switzerland's largest medical centers.
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported Sunday that Marchionne has been in a coma since Friday afternoon local time and was breathing with the help of a ventilator. Earlier in the week, doctors tried to wean him off the ventilator by reducing sedative medicine but were not successful, the newspaper said.
La Stampa said Marchionne had expected to leave the hospital within a few days of his surgery and had confirmed his agenda for early July.
La Stampa said that Marchionne's grave condition does not appear to have improved since Saturday, that his family is by his side, and that hospital officials were not giving out any information.
Fiat Chrysler gave no specific details about Marchionne's health Saturday when its board abruptly replaced him as CEO with Jeep boss Mike Manley, but comments by the company suggest the 66-year-old has become gravely ill weeks after his surgery to his right shoulder.
A large group of local and international reporters have been staking out the hospital, but have not been given access inside and reliable information has been hard to come by, according to media reports from Zurich.
Another Italian paper, Il Messaggero, said Marchionne's condition had worsened in recent hours, according to a report in the Detroit News, and that sons Allessio Giacomo and Jonathan Tyler were with him, along with his partner Manuela Battezzato, who works in communications for the automaker.
Ekor, the Agnelli-Elkann listed holding company that also owns the controlling stakes into FCA, CNH and Ferrari, is the second largest shareholder in GEDI Gruppo Editoriale S.p.A., publisher of La Stampa.
Reuters contributed to this report
