A 28-year-old man who bucked the reality of COVID-19 died in an Italian hospital and his father is on a ventilator still battling the virus.

Italian news outlets said Luigi Cossellu was admitted to the hospital on January 16. He was reportedly unvaccinated against COVID-19 and questioned his diagnosis even after being transferred to a hospital's Intensive Care Unit.

Cossellu was being treated in Latina, south of Rome, and at one point tore off his oxygen mask, according to Ansa, an Italian wire service. After denying he had COVID-19, he reluctantly put the mask back on and Ansa reported that he died at Latina's Santa Maria Goretti Hospital.

(A definite Darwin Award nominee.)