Heatstroke conscript ‘steadily improving’

THE HEALTH of a National Guard conscript being treated in Israel for heatstroke is steadily improving, the Defence Ministry said yesterday.

According to the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Petros Kareklas, 18-year-old Neophytos Georgiou is slowly getting better, after being struck down with heatstroke during the heat wave almost a month ago.

“There is a steady improvement in his condition,” Kareklas told the Mail. “The development of his condition is under the observation of the Health Services, who are keeping us informed on any changes.”

He added that Georgiou’s doctors in Tel Aviv had not yet mentioned when Georgiou would be coming home.

The NG came under scrutiny following Georgiou’s illness, some blaming the condition on the army’s overexerting exercises. But the ministry has insisted it was an isolated incident.

The Spanish fisherman who collapsed into a coma from heat stroke off the coast of Larnaca is also recovering and returned to Spain this week, Spanish media reported.

Manuel Antonio Cuadrado, 53, spent two weeks in hospital in Larnaca after being found suffering from heatstroke aboard the trawler Jos? y Rafaela last month.

He is now well enough to continue his recovery under medical observation at home.

A fellow crew member Jos? Giner Urios, 38, who was rescued from the same ship, died hours after being taken ashore.

Altogether, the most recent heat wave, which lasted for well over a week in late July, claimed the lives of three people. An earlier heat wave at the end of June killed four elderly people.

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.