A BRITISH businessman has accused Paphos hospital of killing his elderly mother last year when she choked after being force fed by a nurse.
Well known painter Thraki Rossidou-Jones died from asphyxiation after choking on her dinner on July 18, 2007.
Despite having suffered a severe stroke 24 hours earlier, leaving her unresponsive and unable to swallow, she was force fed by a nurse.
“We told her to stop and that it would kill her,” Gavin Jones, 59, said.
But his pleas and those of his wife, Christine, fell on deaf ears.
“The nurse ignored our protests and proceeded to take a dessert spoon of semolina in one hand. She told Thraki to open her mouth. As Thraki didn’t respond, the nurse forced open her mouth with one hand and shovelled food into it with the other. She got another spoonful of semolina and did the same again. Then she got a spoonful of soup and put that into Thraki’s mouth as well. The nurse closed her jaw and walked very quickly out of the ward,” Christine said.
Within seconds, the 87-year-old started choking, her eyes bulged and her face turned blue. Despite Gavin and Christine’s cries for help it was too late. Rossidou-Jones died in Christine’s arms, ending the life of one of Cyprus’ most famous artists.
State pathologist Sophoclis Sophocleous’ report confirms the 87-year-old died from “asphyxiation due to white foodstuffs and a large quantity of white milky substances”.
“I can still see it happening in front of me every day,” a tearful Christine said.
Unfortunately, Thraki’s tragic story does not begin on the day she died.
Instead, the lack of care and respect she and her carers were shown by the state’s health services date back at least four years.
The couple met with the Sunday Mail and recounted an unbelievable sequence of events leading up to what they said was the “negligent death” of a woman known and loved by many.
“Those incompetents killed her,” a clearly devastated Gavin said.
The family’s involvement with the health services first started in 2003, when a private doctor recommended the well known Famagusta-born na?ve painter undergo a psychiatric assessment following outbursts of uncharacteristic behaviour. For inexplicable reasons, the hospital refused to carry out the test.
“They told us nothing was wrong with my mother,” Gavin said.
Despite the hospital’s efforts to convince the duo of Thraki’s good health, her senility had started to become apparent.
“We were told [by the private hospital] that she needed full time care and it had to be in some form of institution,” Gavin said.
The problem was no such place existed, forcing the couple to place Thraki in a residential home. Three days later, she discharged herself and returned to Lemba, her Paphos district village.
“Even though she was unwell, because they wouldn’t give her a psychiatric assessment we couldn’t get power of attorney [to have her committed],” he said.
It was during this time that the couple was called to the hospital for an emergency meeting to discuss his mother. As well as the Jones couple, the hospital chief, another doctor, and the Lemba community leader were present.
“I wanted to know what was wrong with my mother and how best to care for her. What our options were if there were any,” Gavin said.
Not only did he not get an answer, but he and Christine were told to leave the room while Thraki’s case was discussed by the trio, together with a staff psychiatrist and a monk from St Neophytos monastery who had joined the meeting.
“They were all in there talking about my mother and I was being excluded and made to sit outside,” he said.
When the meeting concluded, only the monk approached the couple and told them that they had been accused by hospital staff of trying to strip Thraki of her home and all her assets.
Hurt and bewildered that they were being accused of trying to milk the painter for money, the wealthy couple returned to the UK.
“To this day, I know my mother suffered from advanced senile dementia and other ailments, but I only found out a few days before she died,” Gavin said.
He was referring to a diagnosis of Arteriosclerotic Dementia by a private Limassol psychiatrist last July. The diagnosis concurred with the findings of cerebral atrophy in 2003 and in April 2007 following a CT scan and MRI, respectively.
At no point did any member of staff at Paphos hospital accept this diagnosis. Instead the Joneses were repeatedly told Thraki was in good mental health, despite her rapid deterioration and increasing paranoia and confusion.
In April last year, she had a major stroke and had to be admitted to hospital. Three days later she was home.
“They wouldn’t admit she was incompetent. They said she was 100 per cent OK,” Gavin said.
Again they were refused a psychiatric assessment, despite the efforts of a second private doctor to have one done.
Christine said it wasn’t long before she noticed Thraki had difficulty swallowing and had stopped eating. She also now needed full time care and had to be lifted, cleaned and fed by Gavin and Christine.
A month later, she developed severe abdominal pains and had to be readmitted to hospital.
“She wouldn’t go anywhere else. She only wanted to go to the state hospital,” Gavin said.
Within days she was home again.
By this time, the Joneses were becoming desperate. Thraki’s care was becoming a full time job and they had no one to explain what was going on or how best to look after her.
During this time, they appealed to the welfare services for help. They were told that if she had over £2,000 in assets they weren’t eligible for help.
“They gave us no help, no advice, nothing. We wanted guidance. We wanted to be pointed in the right direction but the shutters had come up and they told us nothing. We were on our own,” Gavin said.
He added: “In my opinion it’s the government’s policy to keep old people in whatever state they are in with their relatives… They park the problem back on the relatives regardless of the state of the relative in question.”
As time went on, Thraki became more and more dehydrated. She also needed constant confirmation and reassurance about where she was, and had started to confuse her son and his wife for her deceased brother and her husband’s brother’s wife.
On July 7, the painter was admitted to hospital for rehydration. The same day she discharged herself and returned home.
The next day she refused to eat and her condition worsened.
“I didn’t know how she was still alive because she wasn’t eating enough,” Christine said. “She was finding it difficult to swallow too.”
On July 9, it was recommended to them by their private doctor to readmit Thraki for three to four days for rehydration.
“Whatever she ate, she could no longer swallow. In reality, we could no longer get her to eat anything,” Christine said.
Although it became clear to the couple that Thraki was no longer fit to make decisions on her medical wellbeing, the hospital doctors continued to refuse to give her a psychiatric evaluation.
The same day, Thraki demanded to go home and the hospital tried to send her, but no one was home to receive her. They even tried and failed to leave her with a neighbour.
On July 11, the couple were threatened with arrest if they did not pick up Thraki and take her home.
“We were threatened for not removing her from hospital… It was simply madness,” Christine said.
Then on July 17 Thraki had a massive stroke. Their family doctor insisted that the 87-year-old go straight to hospital.
But instead of admitting her to the intensive care unit (ICU), she was placed in the cardiology ward. A few hours later, Gavin and Chritine were told she was fine.
Another private doctor told the couple he had grave concerns about the treatment Thraki was receiving and told them that whatever they did, they were not to feed her.
According to the UK Stroke Association “if there are serious difficulties [in swallowing], the person will be kept ‘nil by mouth’, that is without food or liquid. Their fluid levels will be maintained using a drip into a vein, and a dietician will advise on any nutritional supplements required”.
But Thraki was not kept ‘nil by mouth’. Instead hospital staff had already tried to force Gavin and Christine to feed her.
On July 18, Thraki was noticeably worse. At around 4.45pm the couple was told to feed her. They refused point blank.
This was when the nurse forced food down the 87-year-old’s throat, leading to her death.
“Instead of saying she was dead, they had the audacity to prop her up and to whisk her off to the ICU as if she was still alive and they were trying to resuscitate her,” Gavin said.
Christine followed them into the ICU and heard the cardiogram flat lining. Her worse fears were confirmed and she shared them with Gavin.
Twenty minutes later they were joined by a doctor who gave them a spiel about how wonderful Thraki had been. He ended it by saying: “She’s dead.”
Devastated, Gavin and Christine demanded that have some time alone with Thraki’s remains.
“She was stone cold, so I knew she’d died upstairs,” Christine sid.
“We cried our eyes out for 15 minutes,” Gavin said. “She was half naked on a slab with a plastic tube coming out of her mouth. She looked about 150 with all these tubes coming out of her.”
After leaving the hospital the couple drove straight to the police to file a report on what had happened so that her death could be investigated.
The court enquiry into how Thraki died is still pending. The Mail contacted the Paphos police department to determine what was delaying the procedure. Apparently the officer responsible for the case file has not yet passed it on to the district court. The deputy head of the minor crimes unit said he would look into why this was the case and would have an answer by tomorrow.
The couple’s lawyers have repeatedly been stonewalled by police, despite repeated efforts to secure a copy of the state pathologist’s report.
The hospital has also admitting in writing that it has lost Thraki’s medical file covering the period from April to July last year. Gavin fears they might claim his mother never had a stroke so as to excuse feeding her.
“I want somebody to say I’m sorry. I want them to tell me [personally], not in a letter. That’s all I want. I want them to accept liability,” Gavin said.
He said that the apology would have to come from the top and not the hospital.
“I want an apology from the Health Minister,” he said.
“The way my mother was treated is an outrage. Old people and young people should be treated with respect and care. We are talking about the fundamentals in health care. The managers and administration of hospitals are obviously not managing these hospitals. On my mother’s bed it should have said ‘nil by mouth’. They’ll likely try to blame the nurse who fed her but she’s just the catalyst. It goes right up to the top, to the Health Minister who allows this sorry state of affairs to persist.”
He added: “Had we not been there to witness the sequence of events from start to finish, we would no doubt have received a call from the hospital to say she’d died. They’d probably have said it was another stroke. I intend to be the Cypriot health authorities’ worst nightmare.”
