Seven arrested over dozens of deaths at nursing home in Crete

Police in Crete on Wednesday arrested seven people in connection with the deaths of dozens at a private nursing home in Chania.

Seven, including the owner and her daughter, two doctors, three nurses and administrative staff, have been charged with forming a criminal organization.

The extensive dossier is reported to include 30 deaths and 8 near-death experiences (between 2009 and 2021), fraud, forgery, false medical certificates and breach of duty.

Police sources say the number of neglected deaths is at least 80, but investigators are having difficulty gathering evidence to prosecute these cases.

Information about nursing home in Chania, Crete reminiscent of Hitchhawk’s horror films: hunger, dirt, violence, extortion.

The case file states that the house set aside 0.55 cents a day for residents’ meals, which rarely included meat or fruit. The supplied milk was diluted with water. Feeding was often forced, causing some of the establishment’s occupants to suffocate. Residents were sometimes fed with leftover food or offal provided free of charge by local vendors.

Nursing home residents were rarely washed and their clothes were rarely cleaned, and the towels and razors they used were shared. In some cases, residents were forced to wear used diapers.

The case file also states that some patients were tied to their beds with leather straps by their arms and legs. It is also alleged that residents were prescribed strong sedatives.

Searches of the detainees’ homes yielded 105,000 euros in cash and a large amount of jewelry, which police believe are the proceeds of crime.

The seven arrested are expected to testify before magistrates on Friday and Saturday.

Investigation in the house was started in April 2021 after complaints of lack of maintenance.

The niece of an elderly woman who lived in a nursing home in Chania complains that her aunt’s property has been taken away. In particular, she stated that her aunt was forced to sell real estate at a much lower price than the real one. She also told zarpanews.gr that her aunt had 30 pounds of gold or more and jewels that disappeared in an unknown direction. A former nursing home employee reported abuse of the elderly. According to the complainant, the staff were ordered not to feed the residents there, and in order to avoid complaints, they were allegedly given sedatives. A former nursing home employee spoke to SKAI about the terrible conditions and abuse of the elderly. “They were tied up, they were given sleeping pills all the time,” she says, adding: “Suddenly, within a week, 14 people died.” She claims that in some cases the bodies of the deceased had “bruises and bumps” and that some officers beat the elderly.

The woman also says that everyone in the nursing home knows about this, because cameras are everywhere, and the only concern of the staff, according to her, was to take money and gold from the elderly (they did not even disdain to “take bribes” for supposedly good care their visitors).

For their part, the director and lawyer of the Chania Nursing Home threatened legal action against those who filed complaints against them. Nursing home lawyer Mr. Sfakiotakis said the particular employee was lying shamelessly because she was fired.

Another testament to the “beautiful” care of the guests in Chania came from a relative of an elderly woman. According to her, the old woman died in a nursing home. After serving the anniversary of the memorial service, a relative of the deceased says on the SKY channel: “Then it just attracted our attention. She died there, in ward number 2 … In fact, she died of hunger. They did not let us feed her. When we came to her We were kicked out.”

The testimonies of other relatives of the deceased, which have become public, are shocking. The daughter of one of the victims stated: “She had wounds … Her legs were so thin, well, just like the prisoners of Auschwitz! And when it came time for the funeral, they didn’t bring the body to our house. I think they did it in order not to show what she looked like lately. If I had gone, I would have seen her bound hand and foot on the bed.”

Another relative of the victim stated that all the property of the elderly woman was transferred to the church, and the transfer procedure took place between two strokes. On camera at SKAI, and even referring to his mother’s case, the man said he saw the woman very emaciated on Wednesday afternoon, not at all like when she entered the nursing home. On Friday he was informed that she had died.

PS All of the above is shocking, but no less shocking is the fact that these seven non-humans were still at large.

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