Moment that took mum’s breath away five years after son’s death

Patrizia Cassaniti was in the kitchen preparing dinner for her family when she began calling out to each of her children.
“I was calling the kids down for dinner, and I nearly screamed out Christopher’s name to come down,” the Sydney mum tells 9honey.
She said the moment took her breath away.
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Patrizia and Rob, both 53, had just returned from a trip to Europe, which is where they were when news broke about allegations of corruption in the construction industry in Australia and the role this may have played in the death of their son Christopher Cassaniti at a construction site in Sydney in 2019.
Christopher died under a pile of steel when overloaded scaffolding collapsed on top of him and a colleague at a building site at Macquarie Park.
A crew from 60 Minutes flew to Venice to talk to the couple about the recent findings, and they expressed their “anger” as they learned more about what led to their son’s death.
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Christopher called for his mum as he died after an excruciating 20 minutes, his hand held by Khaled Wehbe, who later told his devastated parents of their son’s final moments.
“It makes me feel like I abandoned him and I wasn’t there for him,” Patrizia shares.
“But, you know, that’s what [Wehbe] deals with every single day because he says to me, ‘All I hear is your son screaming in my ear every single day’.”
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The tears “never ever” stop for Patrizia and Rob.
Patrizia lives on in memory of her son, advocating for improved workplace safety on construction sites through the Touched by Christopher Foundation, with her husband by her side.
The couple are hosting their second gala on October 17 to raise funds used to support families of loved ones killed or injured at work until insurance and compensation kicks in.
“It just helps them to be able to not to have to go to work straight away,” she explains.
“Unfortunately bills don’t stop, mortgages, rent payments, they don’t stop because someone is dying in your family. They continue to come, and we know very well because Rob still hasn’t gone back to work,” Patrizia says.
“He’s got severe PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) and he hasn’t gone back to work.”
Patrizia, who ran a coffee van servicing work sites including her son’s Macquarie Park site, also hasn’t returned to work.
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“It’s too painful,” she says. “This is not something that any parent can ever get over. And a loss of a child is one of the worst things that can happen to any parent.
“But to lose a child in circumstances like that, that’s totally avoidable, make the situation even worse.”
Facing each day without her son is excruciating.
“I think my mind just blocks it, the fact that he’s gone,” she says.
“It doesn’t allow me to actually realise that he’s around and I still have these thoughts of asking Christopher questions and for his ideas.”
Had he lived, Christopher would be 23. At the age of 18, he’d “already bought himself a boat and a car.”
“Just before he died, we’d spoken to a broker because he wanted to invest into some property,” she says.
Patrizia and Rob stood by helplessly while emergency services worked frantically to free Christopher, to no avail.
They were able to spend time with their son after his death, later cremating him, his ashes placed in a teddy bear carried by his mum everywhere.
They had a cast made of both their hands intertwined with his ahead of the cremation.
Christopher’s older brother Adriano is now 24, and his younger brother Michael is 21. Patrizia says having to care for her sons and her husband following Christopher’s death stopped her descending too far into her grief.
“You can’t crumble as a mum. You just got to keep going we have no choice, you know, we’ve got to be strong and it’s difficult. It’s very difficult.”
Michael has followed in Christopher’s footsteps to become a construction worker, with his mother’s safety messaging in his head. She tells him and those she educates on construction sites to “listen to their gut feeling.”
“If it doesn’t feel right, it means it’s not right. You need to stop,” she says.
“I tell them about the new laws and responsibilities that everyone is under. That we can’t risk life just to get a job done because it’s just a job.”
Funds raised for the Touched by Christopher Foundation provides families of loved ones killed or injured at work with three months worth of groceries “and then another $1,500 on top of that to pay any utilities like water bills, whatever it is that they have outstanding”.
“The gala dinner is so that we can raise further money to be able to provide them with an additional $5,000 to cover mortgage or rent repayments.”
Purchase your tickets to the Touched by Christopher Gala Dinner on October 17 at Doltone House in Sydney here. Make a donation to the organisation’s important work here.
If you or someone you know is in need of support following loss contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Griefline on 1300 845 745.