27/01/2025
Subject: ann rivers
https://www.efsyn.gr/ellada/koinonia/458206_aboithiti-sto-spiti-mpalaki-sta-nosokomeia
Helpless at home, a "ball" in hospitals
Article by Lena Kyriakides
Hydra: The odyssey of a cancer patient with an open wound on his head and a fractured leg
The harsh and inhospitable face of the state in its most inhuman form is faced by an 85-year-old cancer patient, Anne Rivers, who has lived on Hydra since she left Texas in the 1960s to follow her lover [sic] Leonard Cohen with a group of hippies to Greece. She had been involved in poetry since then and chose to stay in the place that the great troubadour made him famous worldwide, with crowds of his admirers still visiting the island every year. Helpless at home, a "ball" in hospitals
For years, the elderly woman has been supported thanks to the financial assistance of her own people and the support of the neighborhood. In the last month, after her last friend also passed away, she has been facing enormous difficulties. She has been bedridden since she fell at the beginning of the month and suffered a fractured fibula, while the neighbors who surrounded her with care for at least two years are now unable to cope. The case of Anne Rivers tragically highlights the lack of decent care structures at the local or state level for the indigent, helpless elderly, which the government wants to show that it is addressing with the recent announcement by Sofia Zacharakis of the “Neighborhood Caregiver” program within the framework of the “National Strategy for Long-Term Care”, which was, however, presented a whole year ago.
According to information from "Ef.Syn.", the 85-year-old was transported two days late to the Argolida General Hospital in Nafplio, where a plaster cast was placed on her leg. She then returned to the island and remained bedridden for two weeks, in miserable conditions, as she was unable to help herself, although she remains mentally clear.
Until recently, she refused to leave the island of Argosaronic, while she is facing a dramatic problem on her forehead from a wound, which has caused vision problems, facial deformity and swelling, resulting in difficulty in feeding. The patient is reported to have suffered suppuration and infection of the wound at the site of a surgical incision, which she had undergone in the past for squamous cell carcinoma, and in fact, parasites in the form of worms appeared a short time ago.
On Christmas Eve, on Saturday, December 21, she was transferred by prosecutor's order to the "Dromokaiteio", without herself having been informed where she was going and what was planned to happen, as she said when we met her a few days later at the "Tzaneio", where she was admitted the next day, even though it does not have an oncology department. It remains unknown whether the law for the provision of opinions by two psychiatrists regarding the order for an involuntary examination at the "Dromokaiteio" was complied with.
For her part, the Deputy Mayor for Social Policy of Hydra, Maria Katsika, speaking to "Ef.Syn.", claims that the municipality is in communication with the prosecutor's office and has done everything legal for the case in collaboration with the regional clinic and the Hospital and Charitable Foundation of Athanassios & Vera Koulouras "Panagia Faneromeni", with the assistance of the social grocery store and "Help at Home".
The only social worker on the island is also paid from this program, since the municipality does not have a social service or local structure nor does it assume the cost of home care for the elderly. Other elderly people cover the costs of caregivers themselves.
The mayor of Hydra, Giorgos Koukoudakis, states to “Ef.Syn.” that everything that should have been done “and more” in the case of Rivers and invokes the understaffing of the services for which he blames the governments of SYRIZA and New Democracy.
The "blue" mayor admits that nothing has changed after his letters to the co-responsible ministries of the Interior and Finance, from which he has asked them to look into the problem of the staff of small island and mountainous municipalities. "They have committed to doing something, that they will put the criterion of locality" he told us and described the 3K announcement as a fiasco, adding that locality was not given priority and that the vast majority of the permanent employees of the municipality left "for various reasons. Only the people from Hydra remained" he said.
In any case, the Hydra nursing home has remained closed since 2012, when a lockdown was imposed under Angelos Kotronis, and the guests were taken to the Piraeus nursing home. His predecessor, Kostas Anastopoulos, spoke to “Ef.Syn.” about the social and architectural value of the former nursing home. “It was a landmark on a main street. The Kriezis mansion had been renovated, it had period furniture, gatherings were held in the large living room. It had income from donations from Hydra residents and operating expenses did not depend on social policy. The municipality covered repairs and jobs using “Help at Home”. Now the municipality is not involved and the program operates like a civil servant, initiating bureaucratic procedures for benefits, etc. It depends on which neighborhood you live in. If they deal with you, the problem is solved, otherwise not”, he says. The only social worker on the island is also paid from this program, since the municipality does not have a social service or local structure nor does it assume the cost of home care for the elderly. Other elderly people cover the costs of caregivers themselves. The mayor of Hydra, Giorgos Koukoudakis, tells "Ef.Syn." that everything that should have been done "and more" was done in Rivers' case and he cites the understaffing of the services for which he blames the governments of SYRIZA and New Democracy.
Ύδρα: Η οδύσσεια καρκινοπαθούς με ανοιχτή πληγή στο κεφάλι και κάταγμα στο πόδι
