Singer Giorgos Mazonakis had reservations about the cost of plasmapheresis, which hypnotherapist Nasos Komianos has told investigators came to as much as €6,000, and changed his mind about the treatment a day after agreeing to it.

The detail is among new material to emerge about the final days before Mazonakis, 54, died on 9 September at a private practice in the Athens district of Kolonaki, where he suffered cardiac arrest during a plasmapheresis session, a procedure in which blood plasma is removed and replaced.

Komianos, who is said to have given his statement to the investigating magistrate on 21 September, said Mazonakis initially accepted the proposed treatment programme without objection. The following day, he said, the singer changed course.

“On the Monday phone call, Mazonakis accepted the treatment and its cost without any objection. On the Tuesday, the doctor forwarded me a message from Mazonakis saying he had changed his mind and would only come for hydrotherapy because of the cost of the plasmapheresis. He said: ‘I’m not here to hand over 3 or 6 grand, I’ll come for hydrotherapy,'” Komianos said.

He added that the message confirmed what Dr Ioanna Gaka, 56, had told him about the singer being prone to sharp changes of mood. Komianos said he would not have taken any commission from treatment Mazonakis received at her practice, and denied any financial gain from it.

The meeting

According to his statement, the two men met on Monday 7 September at 5pm at a restaurant in Neo Psychiko, in northern Athens. A nightclub owner and an artistic manager, who had arranged the introduction, were also present. Mazonakis arrived at 5.40pm.

“Mazonakis was very warm and told me how pleased he was that we were meeting,” Komianos said.

During the conversation, he asked the singer whether he had ever tried to detox. Mazonakis replied that the only treatment he had undergone was hydrotherapy at Gaka’s practice in Kolonaki, which he had visited regularly between 2015 and 2021.

“I told him I work with Dr Gaka and treat patients at her practice. He urged me to phone her there and then. I rang and told her Mazonakis was willing to do whatever was needed to detox, and asked what treatment she could suggest. She proposed he come in on the Tuesday and see what they could do. Mazonakis agreed straight away,” Komianos told the magistrate.

The talk turned personal. Komianos said the singer spoke at length about his private life, and the pair agreed to meet again on Wednesday 9 September at 5pm in Kifisia, a northern suburb of Athens.

“As soon as we hung up, I kept asking him about his life. I realised he was in a lot of emotional pain and felt that everyone was taking advantage of him. I suggested we meet on the Wednesday and sent him the time and address by message. His eyes were completely clear and he shook my hand. He gave me the impression of a physically healthy man. I told him to go to the doctor so they could decide how to proceed, and that I would be waiting for him in Kifisia on the Wednesday. We never communicated again,” he said.

Komianos told the magistrate he spoke to Gaka again on the Monday evening and raised concerns about the singer’s mental state as a possible contraindication for treatment. He said she replied that they would deal with it, and that the two agreed Mazonakis needed help.

On the Tuesday evening, after the singer’s first appointment, Gaka told him Mazonakis had attended and would return the next day for plasmapheresis. Komianos said he reminded her of their 5pm meeting and was assured there would be enough time.

“She told me nothing about his condition. I think she mentioned he had hydrotherapy on the Tuesday, but I can’t be certain,” he said.

On the Wednesday, Komianos said he went to Gaka’s practice on Patriarchou Ioakeim Street at 10.30am for a hypnotherapy session. At around 12.50pm he phoned her to ask whether Mazonakis had arrived. She told him he had not, and he asked her to message him to confirm the schedule was being kept. She replied that they would “make it in time”.

The photograph

A few hours later, while Mazonakis was at the practice on Karneadou Street undergoing plasmapheresis, Komianos received a text message from Gaka saying everything was going smoothly. A photograph of the singer attached to the treatment machine was also sent, according to his statement.

“I fell asleep for a bit, and when I opened my phone I saw an SMS saying ‘all fine’, which I reacted to with a heart. I also received an MMS with a photo of Mazonakis undergoing treatment, which I again reacted to with a heart. I was annoyed, though, that she sent me a photo of a patient. His eyes were closed and his leg looked limp,” Komianos said.

At 4.50pm, shortly before his planned meeting with the singer, he texted Gaka asking whether Mazonakis was all right. When he received no reply, he rang her. He said she told him the national ambulance service (EKAB) had arrived and taken Mazonakis away.

“She said his blood pressure had dropped, that he was talking incoherently and that perhaps he had taken substances. I asked why she had not gone with him, and she said she had a client. I did not speak to the other doctor at all. I sent Dr Gaka a text saying Mazonakis had told me on the Monday that he took diuretics, and asking whether they might have lowered his blood pressure,” he said.

According to Komianos, she replied: “Yes, it happens.” He said he urged her to go to the hospital immediately and offer help, adding that he would go too if needed, believing at the time that the singer was still alive.

“I remember it was 6pm when I got an alert on my phone from a website saying Mazonakis had died at Elpis hospital. I was shocked. I messaged her to ask whether she had heard, and she replied ‘yes, just now’. I wrote to her about the terrible thing that had happened to us, because I felt awful, as in effect I was the one who put them in touch. Later I sent another message, and late that night I told her I was sorry for what they were going through and that I was there if they needed me. The doctor is generally a calm person. When we spoke on the phone she was calm and did not give me any sense of how serious the situation was,” he said.

Komianos told the magistrate that he introduced Mazonakis to the doctor and that he sent the singer to her practice on Karneadou Street. He said his contact with Gaka, including the photograph he received on the day of the procedure, was connected to the fact that he had an appointment with Mazonakis at 5pm.

Gaka and her husband, Dr Ilias Theodoropoulos, who run the practice, are being held at Korydallos prison pending trial and face charges of homicide with possible intent. Gaka has denied giving the singer any substance or sedation.