A Swiss hospital said Thursday that it treated former Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne for a "serious illness" for more than a year before he died Wednesday at age 66.
University Hospital Zurich issued a statement Thursday amid "various rumors" about Marchionne's medical treatment.
"To prevent further speculation: Mr. Sergio Marchionne was a patient at USZ. Due to serious illness, he had been the recipient of recurring treatment for more than a year," the hospital said. "Although all the options offered by cutting-edge medicine were utilized, Mr. Marchionne unfortunately passed away. We deeply regret his death and would like to express our sincere condolences to his family."
The Italian website Lettera43.it, citing anonymous sources, said in a post Wednesday that Marchionne suffered an embolism during surgery and lapsed into a coma _ and that his health was worse than had been reported when he entered University Hospital in late June.
FCA said it "is not in a position to comment on statements made by University Hospital Zurich. Due to medical privacy, the company had no knowledge of the facts relating to Mr. Marchionne's health."
FCA said it had been told that Marchionne had undergone shoulder surgery.
Then, "On Friday, July 20, the company was made aware with no detail by Mr. Marchionne's family of the serious deterioration in Mr. Marchionne's condition and that as a result he would be unable to return to work. The company promptly took and announced the appropriate action the following day."
On July 21, FCA named Mike Manley, who was running the Jeep and Ram brands, as Marchionne's replacement effective immediately.
According to a USA TODAY Network translation, Lettera43 reported that Marchionne "had been diagnosed some time ago with a rather invasive shoulder cancer." An earlier post described it as a soft-tissue sarcoma.
Neither the hospital nor FCA offered details about his illness.
For a long time, Leterra43 said, Marchionne had suffered from severe shoulder pain that made arm movements difficult, and he, "took cortisone in an attempt to soothe them."
The site said the seriousness of Marchionne's condition was hidden, even from Elkann.
