Delayed heart patient arrives in Athens

THE 22-year-old heart patient who needed to go abroad for a heart transplant was transferred to the Onasio Transplant Centre in Athens yesterday, a doctor told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

Stelios Kyprianou was finally taken there after a month of delays due to disagreements between doctors that would escort him and the Health Ministry.
A ministry official refused to comment on how those differences were settled but said: “What’s important is that he is there now, the details of how are not”.

However, head of the public doctors’ union, Stavros Stavrou, made a scathing criticism of how the patient got to Athens yesterday.

“The ambulance that transported Stelios Kyprianou to Larnaca airport at 6am was without heating,” he said.

“He was transported in the cold. Transporting patients under bad conditions increases the risks, but luckily this did not present itself,” he added.

Stavrou said that further problems arose on the plane, as the airline failed to execute the orders of the Health Ministry regarding seats.

“The doctors (escorting Kyprianou) were forced to plead with passengers to move from first class so that the patient could sit there, so in case there was an emergency they could deal with it.” He rejected claims that it was a matter of comfort for the doctors.

Stavrou hinted that the disagreement between doctors and the ministry could well have been over pay. “The issue of payment is under discussion in the union, and the media should stop making an issue of it in an effort to disrepute the medical world. Even if there is an issue of payment, it is a person’s right.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.