Two doctors remanded in custody over the death of Greek singer Giorgos Mazonakis have told an investigating magistrate that they took every necessary step, and that they would have done exactly the same in a hospital.

Mazonakis died on 9 September, aged 54, during a plasmapheresis session, a procedure in which blood plasma is separated and removed from the body, at the Stem Cell clinic on Karneadou Street in Kolonaki, central Athens. Dr Ioanna Gaka and her husband, Dr Ilias Theodoropoulos, who ran the practice, face charges of homicide with possible intent by omission. Both deny the allegations.

Gaka’s testimony

Gaka told the magistrate she “reacted instantly” while Mazonakis was fighting for his life in the practice. Theodoropoulos said he began CPR the moment he was alerted.

“I put an oxygen mask on him straight away and started calling for Ilias,” Gaka said. “I don’t know whether the monitor had an alarm function. I shouted to the nurse to prepare adrenaline and asked for Ilias to be fetched immediately. I didn’t see which nurse came. I began CPR. I was trained in surgery, so I knew how to react in an emergency. It would have made no difference had I been in a hospital. CPR can be performed in the street too. We keep adrenaline at the practice.

“My husband came at once and started CPR. It all happened within a minute. We did what we should have done, and in a hospital we would have done exactly the same, in the same time. As soon as we saw he was not responding, we called EKAB [the National Centre for Emergency Care]. In the panic, it took us around five minutes to make the call. I administered the adrenaline while Theodoropoulos did the CPR. When EKAB arrived, they carried him out in a chair instead of on a stretcher, which is what should have been used so that CPR was not interrupted.”

Question: Why do you think Mr Mazonakis suffered cardiac arrest?

Answer: I cannot say with any certainty. Even the forensic report has not given answers on that.

Question: Why was the defibrillator not working?

Answer: I switched on the defibrillator and it showed asystole (a flatline). The EKAB defibrillator showed the same, and so did the one at the Elpis hospital. A body can go straight into asystole. That is exactly what cardiac arrest is.

Question: Why did nobody go with the ambulance?

Answer: What the paramedic said is not true. I got into the ambulance first and was told to get out because, evidently, there was no room.

Question: Why were the appointments deleted from iCloud?

Answer: I don’t deal with secretarial matters at all.

Theodoropoulos’s testimony

Giving his own version of events after Mazonakis’s sudden deterioration, Theodoropoulos said he started CPR as soon as he was told, at 4.15pm.

“I checked his pulse and immediately began CPR, chest compressions and artificial respiration, three to one, as the protocol requires,” he said. “Dr Gaka administered 1ml of adrenaline in my presence. When I came in, Dr Gaka was not carrying out CPR. She was beside the machine, near the patient’s right arm. I said they should call EKAB. About four or five minutes must have passed between my entering the room and the call being made. I reported a cardiac incident and asked for a cardiology unit. Dr Gaka’s practice had a defibrillator, as part of the set-up for the operation of the machine. We both know how to use a defibrillator, but because there was asystole, we did not use it.”

In another part of his testimony, he said: “I wasn’t asked to follow the ambulance. I believe Dr Gaka’s defibrillator was working, but we did not use it because of the asystole. I have never tested it. I don’t know whether Dr Gaka had checked it. The paramedics left at 4.40pm.”

The magistrate asked Theodoropoulos why he had not accompanied the patient to hospital. “I was not the patient’s treating doctor, so there was no reason for me to go to the hospital,” he replied. “I had nothing further to offer. Nor did Dr Gaka have anything more to offer the staff at Elpis. As the patient’s doctor, she had already given the paramedics all the necessary information. They had our telephone numbers, so they, or the hospital staff, could contact us at any time for any information.”

Theodoropoulos was also questioned about the equipment at the Karneadou Street practice, and said his wife used the machines strictly within their indications.

“Dr Gaka’s machine belongs to a borderline category that falls under a general plasmapheresis heading, because the status of the machine has not been formally defined and it is not classified by the National Organisation for Medicines (EOF),” he said. “There is no representative in Greece to submit a request to EOF.”

He continued: “If the buyer is in a country that does not allow such a machine to operate, the manufacturer is obliged to declare that it cannot be marketed there. Dr Gaka bought it because she judged that its value, within a regenerative, holistic approach, was fully covered for its use by the safeguards of inspections, regulators in countries such as Germany and Austria, and notification to the Athens Medical Association (ISA).”

Since the doctors gave their testimony, a nurse has told the magistrate that the clinic’s defibrillator had not been charged.