It's probably that. If that old lady refers illnesses as "damaged" then she's a bad mfing grandma. Just she wait, just because she doesn't get sick or something, she will probably rot soon.
I agree, I get the feeling that she forced her daughter to put him up for adoption because of it apathetic_ghost
that and the family seems to be wealthy (no reason they couldn't actually accommodate a strange illness like gio's other than it "looking bad"), gio was probably had with a father that wasn't approved of or who dipped out, so she probably threatened to cut the mom off.
maybe the old woman referred Giovanni as a damaged thing cos of his illness ( ̄∇ ̄")