The owner of a nursing home in northern Athens where cases of Covid-19 have been detected committed suicide on Wednesday morning. He was reportedly found dead in his home. One elderly woman and two employees were infected with the coronavirus.
According to media information, the 41-year-old owner had left a handwritten note and shot himself with a rifle.
He had recently inherited the business from his father and had “locked” himself with the elderly in the nursing home for 65 days during the lockdown in spring. He wanted to be sure that the people were protected, his colleagues told media.
The lockdown of Dimitris Kampanaros in the nursing home started on March 24 and ended on June 1.
Speaking to huffpost-greece, his colleagues described hims as a “sensitive, hardworking and passionate about his job,” an “excellent professional” who had studied abroad about the subject of nursing homes and elderly.
Like all his colleagues, he was psychologically burdened by the great responsibility he assumed after the outbreak of the pandemic.
“We have all been burdened after the outbreak of the pandemic. We carry more weight and responsibility than we owe. We are under pressure. Do you know what it is like to live under the stress that a case may be confirmed in your nursing home?” a colleague said.
A catalytic role was recently played by the media, as they have been particularly strict towards nursing homes, the colleague pointed out, adding that the nursing homes pay from their own pockets for all the extra sanitary material needed due to the coronavirus and for tests, as tests carried by health authorities are not enough.
“The state does not help us as much as it should and so we feel unbearable pressure every day and anxiety for the future of the elderly,” Kampanaros’ colleague stressed.
According to media, in the handwritten note he left, Dimitris Kampanaros wrote: “I’m a failure. I discredited the nursing home. I did not succeed. I failed. No one will ever trust me again. The coronavirus has defeated me.”
Last week, an 87-year-old woman and two employees, aged 33 and 47, in the nursery home in Agios Stefanos, were found positive to Covid-19, after the owner had carried out tests on his own initiative.
The elderly woman was immediately transferred with an ambulance to a hospital.
Guests and employees were reported tested twice. The first time was on October 15 most likely by state health teams in the context of broader testing in facilities. No test turned positive.
On Monday, October 19, however, the owner of the nursing home proceeded on his own initiative to have rapid tests conducted to elderly guests and personnel. Three of them turned positive to Covid-19.
The nursing home announced the tragic death with a post on social media.
In a post later it assured that all three people tested positive were asymptomatic and said that all health protocols are been followed.
