Nurses, an anaesthetist and a paramedic have given evidence to the investigating magistrate about what happened at the private clinic in Athens where Greek singer Giorgos Mazonakis died. Their accounts describe alarm and confusion in the treatment room.

Mazonakis, 54, died on Wednesday 9 September while undergoing plasmapheresis, a procedure in which blood plasma is separated and removed from the body. The Stem Cell clinic is on Karneadou Street in the upmarket district of Kolonaki. The doctors who ran it, married couple Dr Ioanna Gaka and Dr Ilias Theodoropoulos, have been remanded in custody on charges of homicide with possible intent by omission. They deny the allegations.

A 53-year-old nurse of Ukrainian origin said Gaka was very agitated and went to fetch Theodoropoulos from his office. He arrived in a similar state, she said.

“It was the first time I had seen him like that, he is usually very composed,” she told the magistrate. “He was shouting that the patient was not doing well and asking us to do things.”

Staff were told to raise Mazonakis’s legs, and a colleague brought oxygen, the nurse said. She was careful not to damage the vein in his right arm, as Gaka planned to give him a saline drip. When she and another nurse entered the room, Mazonakis was pale and unconscious. The treatment had stopped because there was no needle in his left arm, and the machine was not sounding any alarm.

She also said she had not considered the machine safe for patients, because the treatment was highly invasive and lasted a very long time. “On a few occasions, patients have vomited after the treatment,” she said. “Some have felt dizzy afterwards.”

A 61-year-old retired nurse told the magistrate that events began at around 4pm. She and a colleague went in first and found Mazonakis pale. The circulation of blood had been interrupted and he was no longer on the machine, with only the needle in his right arm still in place. They tried to take his blood pressure in his left arm, using a portable digital monitor she had brought. His first readings were not low, she said, and the monitor was still displaying figures.

Theodoropoulos arrived immediately and asked them to raise the singer’s legs, give him oxygen and bring saline. “We could see he was not responding to any of this,” the nurse said. “He was no longer conscious. His blood pressure had dropped. In the end the monitor could not give a reading.”

When Theodoropoulos saw that his blood pressure could not be measured and that his heart rhythm was disturbed, he began chest compressions. “I think CPR is supposed to begin with those indications,” she said. She estimated that five to 10 minutes at most passed between everyone entering the treatment room and the start of resuscitation. In the meantime, one colleague went to fetch the defibrillator and asked another to phone the anaesthetist and ask what the antidote for propofol was.

Anaesthetist: Propofol is an anaesthetic and hypnotic drug

The anaesthetist was the person a 56-year-old nurse telephoned that afternoon. She told the magistrate that she answered the question immediately.

“On Wednesday 9 September she phoned me,” she said. “I recognised her from her voice. She asked whether propofol has an antidote and I told her straight away that it does not, and she hung up. I did not ask her anything. I did not sense any worry or anxiety, I did not hear any commotion, and we did not speak again afterwards. It did not cross my mind at all why she might have been asking.”

She said nobody from the clinic had ever phoned her before to ask about an anaesthetic substance. “I had the impression there might be an anaesthetist at the clinic,” she said. “Neither the doctor nor anyone else there ever told me that propofol was being used.”

She did not link the call to Mazonakis at the time because she had not been told what had happened to him. “When the matter took on major proportions, that was when I connected the nurse’s call with the incident,” she said. She added that she did not know what kind of doctor she was, or her husband, and had never asked, because she had gone to the clinic on the recommendation of colleagues. “I do not remember any patient ever voicing concern to me about the treatment during venepuncture,” she said. “I do not know why the clinic phoned me to ask about propofol, as we had not spoken for around three to four months.”

The anaesthetist described propofol as an anaesthetic and hypnotic drug used in hospital operating theatres. She said she did not know whether it could be supplied through a pharmacy. She had worked only occasionally with the clinic, inserting intravenous lines for patients for a fee of around €150 to €200, and had last done so four to five months earlier. She said she had never seen a patient connected to the plasmapheresis machine and only carried out the venepuncture before leaving.

Paramedic: Nobody asked to accompany the ambulance crew

A paramedic who attended the clinic with colleagues said nobody from the clinic asked to accompany the singer to hospital.

She said she asked the doctor what had happened, whether there was a medical history, why Mazonakis had gone to the clinic, whether he took any medication, and in particular whether he had been given any drugs earlier. “The doctor told me he did not know and that his doctor would tell us,” she told the magistrate. “He never pointed out which one was the doctor.”

“There was a woman in the room, but I do not know whether she was the doctor or a nurse,” she said. “I asked the doctor what his speciality was and he said internal medicine. I did not speak to anyone other than the doctor, as far as I remember. Nobody from the clinic asked to come with us, and we did not ask either.”