"It seems unimaginable to me that you are experiencing this tragedy and uploading photos of beaches and concerts on social media," testified at the trial of Roula Pispirigou the intensivist who received Georgina in April 2021 in the ICU of Rio after the child's seizure in the Karamandanio Hospital of Patras.
Mr. Charalambos Kotsonis testified that all the staff of the University Hospital were troubled by the reactions of Georgina's parents, especially the mother, who had already lost two children and her third, Georgina, was in serious danger: "She seemed not to understand the tragedy her family was going through," the witness said.
Mr. Kotsonis testified that this behavior was so intense that all of them were concerned and that is why they supported the head of Rio's intensive care unit, Mr. Iliadis, to investigate whether something serious was happening with the Daskalakis family.
"I've been working in this unit for 16 years and it's the first time that all the staff that came into contact with the mother said 'here is a problem with this behavior,'" noted the intensivist.
The witness said that R. Pispirigou "looked as if she did not understand this tragedy that her family was going through" and that she was "procedural with her child" at the same time as she was busy on social media uploading photos: "We were troubled by the behavior of the parents and especially the mother, had an inappropriate feeling. What I mean; This family had been through a tragedy. Two of her children had died and she also had a child with a seizure who would need a lot of support from her. You can't have experienced such problems in your family and feed social media with photos from beaches and concerts... I find it unimaginable...", emphasized Mr. Kotsonis.
According to the witness, when Georgina was admitted to the intensive care unit and coming face-to-face with her parents, "who seemed not to be grieving and not reacting" to the painful situation, "we decided that the issue of involvement in these deaths in the family. We had to inform about these children and then it turns out that someone fell off the cot. It's the same as a child coming to you with a broken rib. You must inform."
And this witness made it clear to the court that Georgina's episodes occurred while she was in the Pediatric Clinic and not in the ICU.
As he testified, when Georgina left the intensive care unit and went to the pediatric unit for treatment, she “had three major episodes. The first is believed to have been a seizure episode. Initially they said about an interruption but it was not true and we would characterize it as an overreaction of the pediatricians.
Georgina then developed hyposaturation, tachycardia and other symptoms. He did four episodes in a few hours. We readmitted her to the unit. Again we found nothing while we watched her for 24 hours and then she went back to pediatrics.
Again there we had another episode of desaturation, pallor and she was given intubations with a resuscitator (ambu). We decided that we would take the child back to the unit (ICU). Once again the child showed nothing. There his color returned. So we decided to transfer him to "Aglaia Kyriakou" in order to have a thorough neurological examination. We were concerned about this particular incident since the test was proceeding and it was negative, because there were two other deaths in the family and the causes were not fully clarified. That is why we were mainly troubled by the behavior of the parents and especially the mother. For me, her feeling was impersonal."
The trial continues.
Source: RES-EAP