A singer has died after suffering cardiac arrest during a trendy plasma exchange as thousands gathered overnight to pay tribute.
Greek superstar Giorgos Mazonakis, 54, was rushed to hospital with no pulse and no spontaneous breathing and was pronounced dead at 5.40pm last Wednesday (9 Sep).
Elpis Hospital in Athens said he arrived at 4.45pm and that resuscitation “was performed in accordance with protocol, without success”.
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The star collapsed during a trendy blood-wash at a private general practice.
The married doctors who ran the private practice, Ioanna Gaka and Ilias Theodoropoulos, have been charged with endangerment resulting in death and are due before an investigating magistrate today (14 Sep).
He went to The Stem Cell Clinic, a private general practice in Kolonaki, for plasmapheresis, a specialist blood-filter sold increasingly as an anti-ageing fix.
Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said the premises “was licensed only as a general medical practice, and a medical procedure of this kind is not permitted to be performed in such a practice”.
Athens Medical Association president Giorgos Patoulis said inspectors were checking whether the licence covered the machines and methods used on site.
A haematologist told local media that true plasma exchange is a complex hospital procedure requiring a central catheter and lasting several hours, and “is not performed to combat ageing or for cosmetic reasons”.
Investigators are reconstructing a disputed timeline after machine records indicated a session of about 42 minutes ending around 2.57pm, with the emergency call not made until about 4.21pm.
Investigators recovered a deleted photograph of the singer unconscious on the bed, according to reports.
Officers are examining an alleged mismatch between the arrival time first given verbally and the time shown by the evidence.
The doctors deny wrongdoing and have said he collapsed as a line was being inserted, before the treatment itself had begun.
Family lawyer Charalambos Lykoudis said the case file showed the machine had already been running and that Mazonakis “had lost consciousness an hour and a half before the EMS was called”.
The family is asking magistrates to upgrade the charge to homicide with possible intent.
A post-mortem has not yet fixed a precise cause of death, with toxicology and histology still pending, although the family’s lawyer said forensic findings showed no pre-existing heart disease.
The Health Ministry has said it will draw up tighter rules for longevity, rejuvenation and anti-ageing clinics after the case.
Thousands packed Holy Trinity Church in Nikaia overnight, singing his hits.
Fellow stars Anna Vissi, Angela Dimitriou, Lakis Lazopoulos and Zeta Makrypoulia paid their respects, as reported by NeedToKnow.
His parents, Manolis and Kleio, and sisters Vaso and Maria attended the public vigil in the parish where he grew up.
The funeral service is at 1pm today, with burial at the Third Cemetery reserved for his family, who have asked for donations to Humanity Greece instead of wreaths.
Mazonakis, a three-decade hitmaker, was due to stage a concert on 20 September.
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