An official statement on the elevator incident has been issued by the Paediatric “Aghia Sophia”, where it stresses that “the possibility of an uncontrolled movement (fall) of the ward in any direction is excluded.”

After an inspection, a malfunction was found in the plate controlling the opening speed of the elevator door, which was replaced.

As no other observation was found on the equipment, the elevator was put into normal operation, the hospital’s statement stressed, noting that it is regularly maintained twice a month as required by law.

The announcement:

Regarding the incident of elevator malfunction of the General Children’s Hospital “Aghia Sophia” that took place on 14/01/2025 at 23:30, according to the written Incident Report, we inform about the following:

After the incident, the maintenance company KONE S.A. was informed, based on the malfunction report of 15/01/2025 at 00:10 in the lift A1 of the central building of the Children’s Hospital “Agia Sophia”, which sent an authorized employee to carry out a relevant technical check and then drafted a letter which was sent by e-mail on 16/01/2025, in which it states the following:

– “Upon the arrival of our company’s technician, the elevator was found to be stalled at the 3rd floor level with the floor and cab doors open.

– After the inspection, a malfunction was found in the speed control board of the door opening.

– The above board was replaced.

– A series of tests were performed on elevator subsystems and test runs. In addition, following all of the checks, the possibility of uncontrolled movement (fall) of the car in any direction was ruled out.

– As no other observations were found on the equipment, the elevator was placed in normal operation.”

In this regard, from the relevant records maintained at the Hospital, the following also emerge:

1. The elevator is regularly maintained twice a month as required by law. During the 1st regular maintenance in January, which was carried out on all the lifts of the Hospital during the period 07 & 08.01.2025, no observations regarding malfunctioning problems or the necessity for replacement of spare parts were found.

2. A Periodic Inspection Certificate has been issued and is in force for this lift by an accredited body, and consequently the lift was registered in the Registration Register of the Municipality of Athens with number 10849, until 30.04.2025.