The widow of Manolis Kantaris, who was killed because of a video camera under the windows of his house on pl. Amerikis, died.
Simona Virgili, pulmonologist / resuscitator and director of the intensive care unit at Erricos Dunan Hospital, has died at her home in Ilia. She was the widow of Kantaris, who was killed in May 2011 in Athens, shortly before his wife started laboring and they were about to go to the maternity hospital. According to ilialive, Simone, who has fought an unequal battle with cancer, recently returned to her hometown to be close to her mother and children.
Murder of Manolis Kantaris
The ilialive edition reminded readers of the crime that shocked the country’s public. The tragedy took place in May 2011, when Simona Virgili’s husband was brutally murdered shortly before the birth of his child.
At about 5 o’clock in the morning, the couple were going to leave their home, located at the intersection of Epiros and Fili Streets, to go to the maternity hospital. Manolis went to get his car from the parking lot. At that moment, two Afghans and a Pakistani attacked Manolis in order to rob him and take away the video camera that he had with him. The man was stabbed and left on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. He was killed because of a video camera with which he wanted to capture the moment of his daughter’s birth … As the authorities later learned, she was later sold to Monastiraki for 120 euros.
The two women who were waiting for their husband realized that something was wrong here and went downstairs. The shock they experienced from what they saw was very strong. An ambulance raced through the deserted streets of Athens, hoping to make it to the hospital in time to save the mother and child. They managed to do this, and a healthy girl was born, whom her mother named Emmanuel (after her deceased husband).
Two of the perpetrators of the murder, who were arrested days after the crime were committed, were remanded in custody and sentenced to life in prison by a joint jury appeals court in January 2016. The third is still on the wanted list.
Simone Virgili on the brutal murder of her husband
Two years ago, Simona Virgili told reporters about that night, the years that followed, and how she balanced the joy of having a baby with mourning for her husband. In an interview with Eleanor Meleti, the widow explained that only thanks to her work, into which she went headlong, she somehow survived.
The woman said that the moment she saw her husband’s body in a pool of blood on the sidewalk and was about to faint, she suddenly realized that she needed to maintain her composure in order to save her unborn child. Her mother called an ambulance, which took away the woman in labor, who was in critical condition.
An excellent scientist passed away
Simona Virgili was the director of the hospital’s intensive care unit (Διευθύντρια ΜΕΘ του Eρρίκος Nτυνάν Hospital Center). Previously, for four years she was the deputy scientific director of the ICU hospital, and since 2007 – its scientific director. She was also the coordinator of the organ transplant committee at the same hospital.
Ms Virgili was Associate Professor at the University of Ioannina and completed her Ph.D. thesis on the indicators of inflammation in SFA in patients after major cardiac surgery. She was also a member of the Greek Society of Pneumology, the Greek Society of Intensive Care and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM).
She had 18 publications in Greek and foreign journals such as ERJ 2000, CriticalCare 2005, IntensiveCareMed 2006, JAntimicrobChemoter 2007, Resp.Med 2008, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents 2008, ClinMicrobiolInfect 2010.
Ms Virgili has actively participated, presenting articles and speeches in Greek at the European Conferences of Pulmonologists and Associations of Intensive Care Physicians (ESICM, ISICEM).