A medical team that was nowhere to be found. A nursing assistant with no expertise, who was asking patients for help even with CPR. Two nurses who left the 424 Military Hospital in Thessaloniki before their shift ended. An emergency phone line that “did not work.” An operating report that was altered. A surgery under scrutiny — was it performed or was it used as an alibi for unexplained absences? And ultimately, a 27‑year‑old soldier, Nikos Gatsis, dead, in less than two hours from being transferred to a standard ward from a difficult surgery.
It was Friday, November 3, 2023, and the young man died, essentially unaided, choked by his own blood.

Shocking details about the final moments of soldier Nikos Gatsis emerge from the court file investigating his death.
The young soldier underwent surgery to remove his thyroid — and the family later learned that there was no malignancy.
Although the surgery was necessary, it was not cancerous. According to expert testimonies, if Nikos Gatsis had been given a tracheostomy at the critical moment, he could have survived. Yet no doctor was near him at the critical hour, as trial deposits and testimonies to military justice reveal.

In a memorandum to the prosecutor of the Military Court of Thessaloniki, his father Aris Gatsis responds to the claims and raises questions. Based on the evidence he presents, Mr. Gatsis demands criminal prosecution for intentional homicide with possible malice (dolus eventualis), arguing that the actions and behavior of the medical staff go far beyond mere negligence.

Othon Papadopoulos: “The omissions were criminal, the boy was left to die”

The family’s lawyer, Othon Papadopoulos, told Protothema that the family seeks legal redress:

“From the prosecutorial investigation into the exact circumstances of N. Gatsis’s death, we have encountered many surprises — a series of parallel and independent criminal omissions which lead us to the conclusion that the young man’s death was due to possible malice by those responsible — doctors and nurses at Hospital 424. As it emerged, the young man was left unaided in a hospital bed, left to die. We could not believe how many criminal omissions took place. We have already filed a motion to support the indictment and are proceeding through the legal process to vindicate both his memory and his family.”

The nursing assistant who asked patients for help

Indicative of the fact that Gatsis died virtually unaided — at the critical time, the ward had only a nursing assistant with no specialized knowledge, a high school graduate, and then a doctor who turned out to be unable to help.
The assistant nurse, who later gave testimony in the investigation, admitted she did not know how to perform the necessary medical procedures. She said she was notified at 3 p.m. by a patient next to Gatsis that the young man could not breathe. She called the on‑duty surgeon and got no answer, then called the duty head nurse, and rushed to the ward to see that the soldier could not breathe.

She then called the hospital’s emergency line 2555, but received no response. She called again to report a cardiac arrest, but no one answered. She began CPR, and instructed a neighbor patient to contact the hospital’s internal emergency lines, while in panic she tried to act.

A few minutes later — but by then, critically delayed — she was joined by the floor officer, who also began calling emergency lines without success.
Witnesses say the nursing assistant attempted valiantly, but lacked the knowledge to help. She reportedly even asked other patients for help, who rushed into the corridors, to other floors, seeking a neurosurgery doctor — “running in panic right and left looking for someone,” according to the father’s copy of testimonies.

One key witness — admitted in the case file and public reports — was a patient in a neighboring bed. He testified that he heard the sounds of the young man choking, listened as the nurse cried out for help in all directions, entered the ward to see her performing CPR, and she asked if he knew how to do CPR.
Finally, that man ran from the fourth to the ground floor to find help, but found none.