His mother described the calvary experienced by Gerasimos Iasonas Georgiadis, the sole survivor of the first carriage of the fatal Tempi train, and his family, who two years later and despite the discouraging words of doctors, has not stopped believing in a miracle.

In a heartbreaking testimony to STAR, the woman talks about what she has been through from the first moment she saw her child intubated, right up to today.

“For two years now, I have been mourning my 57 brilliant fellow human beings. Their joys and distinctions, their marriages and their offspring that will never come,” she said, saying there are more victims: “58 are the victims. And put them to the ninth.”

“As I knew him, he will not return.” His mother talks about her son’s condition two years after the accident, explaining that the damage caused by the shockwave is extensive.

“As I knew him, as I raised him, as I cherished him, he will never come back, never again. Now I have another child to cherish. My Gerasimos I only have him deep in my heart,” he says.

When she saw him intubated, the woman promised to offer him everything available on the planet. “As soon as I saw him intubated, without his long hair, having the feeling that what was happening was not true, I promised him that I would offer him everything available on the planet. He was lucky enough to be in the hands of the doctors of the Larissa General Hospital and to be operated on. His body did not have a single scratch on it. If he was ejected, he must have exploded with his foot. The left tibia was broken in two, but it was not visible. A short time later, I found the people from the Larissa ambulance who lifted him off the ground and the ER nurses who shaved his head. Not a drop of blood.”

“It’s like a nuclear bomb exploded in his head”

Doctors described to the mother the state of her son’s health. “I was later told by doctors that the damage was caused by the blast wave from the explosion. “It’s like a nuclear bomb exploded inside his head. It drained the fluids from the brain cells.” Which is far from a trauma,” he explains.

Immediately the first operation was performed, in 12 hours the second craniectomy. Gerasimos endured. No one expected it. The shockwave didn’t cause him a single scratch. But his lungs were bruised, his intestines were injured. Gerasimos had two broken ribs and a bone in his spine. The days go by. The vital organs do not collapse. “But extreme rhabdomyolysis threatens his kidneys and his life again. For the next while two huge pumps on his right and left with special filters recycled his blood. The ICU doctors were always one step ahead. In 24 days, surgery on his leg will follow. Lama with screws. Extreme infections follow. With their foresight and medical genius, my golden doctors spared his life every day. And let Dr. Komnus say that Gerasimos is the one who endures. I was sure he would endure and in my mind I was already planning the next steps. Not towards finding better medicine, we already had that, I’m grateful for that. I was hanging on the doctors’ lips and googling for advanced technologies.

“And I’m his mother”

From the very first moment, the mother wanted to get in touch with leading doctors and centers on the planet. When she asked Dr Komno for the CT scans, he told her: “The child is unresectable and irreversible.” “And I am his mother,” the woman replied.

The transatlantic trip was prohibitive at first. Gerasimos – Jason was admitted to hospitals and centers in Lausanne, Zurich, and Hanover. But there his hematocrit dropped and the child developed new infections.

After an adventure, Gerasimos returned to Larissa “on a military plane and in a bad condition. Again the doctors at the General Hospital of Larissa performed a miracle. Waiting for the plane that would bring us from Germany to Greece I am talking to America for the second time. With my cousin, Dr Sissy Nikolaou, in construction, now working for the government there. We will try again. Her brother-in-law is a great neurologist in America and we consulted him. Pier Fayad’s answer: ‘About the brain, more than me, my student, Panagiotis Varelas, knows. Dr. Varelas is coming to Greece on his own, without accepting money for Gerasimos, braving Hurricane Daniel on September 4, 2023. And since then he has been constantly at our side. along with his wife Marianna Spanaki, also a neurologist. A plan for America is outlined. It would have been safer to have had the corrective surgeries – cranioplasty – for the trip. Something that in Greece would take a long time. We also took the recommendation of the Greek surgeons to do everything in the US so that there is both a knowledge and a medical continuity with the doctors there,” he says.

The trip to US

The family chose Harvard University Hospital in Boston. “Gerasimos traveled without his skull, with the bones preserved in ice. Once there, doctors decided to put in 3D printed grafts as a safer option. The two surgeries were a breeze, without complications.”

“In April 2024 he entered a consciousness detection research project, in which active spots were found. The next stage would be to apply electrodes to those spots. However, this was not feasible, because in practice the spots could not be detected due to the extreme and extensive damage. America’s objectives were achieved,” she explains.

Doctors said they have nothing else to offer. Even for them, Gerasimos is a “unique patient.” The family-oriented themselves to Italy. Although there have been communication difficulties and complaints about delays, doctors last Tuesday said they have not found any conscious movement by Gerasimos.

“They need another three weeks. I told them they had asked for a month and I gave them three and that we would leave at the end of the month,” she said, with complaints from the clinic.

“I haven’t heard a good medical word, but I haven’t stopped hoping for a miracle” Gerasimos’ mother expressed her gratitude to the doctors of Larissa, her cousin, Dr. Varela, the people of EOPYY especially of Larissa. She does not fail to mention the expenses. “I make a picture of people asking “How much did Gerasimos cost the Greek state?”. I would answer in the same words, “How much did Gerasimos cost the Greek state?”. The conclusion of what Gerasimos’ mother experiences is also shocking. “So far I have not heard a good medical word. I pray that God will give the final word. I haven’t stopped hoping for a miracle,” she concludes.