Doctor Ioanna Gaka and staff at the Stem Cell clinic in Athens have given testimony to investigators describing the unusual state Greek singer Giorgos Mazonakis was in during the hours before he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest at the clinic on Wednesday, September 9.
The accounts, drawn from statements by doctors, nurses and administrative staff who were present, trace Mazonakis's movements from the afternoon before his death through his arrival for what was meant to be a scheduled treatment. Witnesses differ over exactly what time he reached the clinic that day.
Mazonakis is a well established figure in Greek popular music. The clinic where he collapsed is in Kolonaki, one of Athens's most affluent districts. Gaka and her husband, Ilias Theodoropoulos, who ran the clinic, are being prosecuted on a felony charge in connection with the case.
The phone call the day before
According to Gaka, the singer called her by phone shortly after 17:00 on the Tuesday, asking for help with health issues that were preventing him from meeting his professional commitments as he wanted to. The two agreed to meet, and about two hours later, at 19:00, Mazonakis went to the clinic.
Gaka told investigators she carried out an electrophysiological test on him using equipment at her clinic and found he was very burdened, and that everything she told him was confirmed by the results. When she asked about his condition, he replied that she could not imagine. During the same testimony, she said the singer also told her he was taking diuretic pills because he believed he had fluid retention.
The treatment she proposed
Gaka said that during their first meeting she noticed symptoms that concerned her. She said Mazonakis was looking for an immediate solution so that he could go through with a scheduled professional appearance.
She said he had a strange cough, was overexcited and could not stand for long. He eventually asked what could be done right away to save the event, she said. She told investigators she suggested a treatment using a machine called INUS PHERESIS, which cleans the blood, saying it had no side effects or contraindications and was in fact recommended in such cases.
She described the procedure to investigators: the patient lies on a bed, two peripheral veins are used with a needle in each, blood is drawn out gradually, no more than 200 ml at a time, passes through the machine, is cleaned and is returned to the body through the second vein. The treatment usually lasts two to three hours, she said, adding that she did not ask for written consent because, if he had not wanted the treatment, he would not have come.
Conflicting accounts of arrival time
After the first visit, a new appointment was arranged for the Wednesday. Gaka said the appointment was scheduled for 15:00 and that the singer arrived about an hour later. That account reportedly does not match testimony from the taxi driver who drove him, or video footage examined as part of the investigation.
According to her testimony, when Mazonakis arrived, also present at the clinic were her husband, Ilias Theodoropoulos, a nurse and the clinic's secretary.
"He was sleepless, restless"
Gaka said she carried out the necessary preparations before the treatment and described the singer's condition at the time. She said Mazonakis was sleepless and restless, with the same cough as the day before and worse difficulty speaking clearly, though he did not report any health problem. He lay down on the bed, she attached ECG stickers that also recorded his oxygen levels, temperature and blood pressure, all of which she said were normal.
Other clinic staff described an unusual picture of the singer that afternoon. One nurse said he seemed somewhat in his own world, a little lost, though she could not say exactly how. She said he was sweet-spoken as always, but that his condition seemed worse than on previous occasions when she had seen him.
What the secretary noticed
The clinic's secretary gave her own account, offering a different timeline for the scheduled appointment. In her version, Mazonakis was expected between 13:00 and 13:30 but arrived at around 15:30.
She said that about 45 minutes later, while Theodoropoulos was going in and out of the room where the singer was, she was asked to call EKAB, Greece's national emergency ambulance service. She said that when he arrived that day he seemed a little strange, giving her the impression he was somewhat disoriented, and had a large bandage stuck to his forehead, though she could not recall which side.
"His gaze was not focused"
Another nurse gave a similar account, saying she noticed a change in the singer's behaviour and presence. She said his gaze was not concentrated and focused, as she perceived it.
This witness placed his arrival at around 15:00. According to her, Mazonakis stayed for about half an hour in another part of the clinic before he and Gaka went together toward the area where the INUS PHERESIS machine was located, to begin the scheduled treatment.
The discrepancies in the testimonies, particularly regarding the arrival times and the sequence of events before the cardiac arrest, are now part of the material being examined by investigators looking into the exact circumstances of the singer's final hours.
