AlphaNews.Live coverage regarding the “blood donation fraud” case and the activities of the medical center in Larnaca, which is under scrutiny by Cypriot authorities.

A patient from Canada who came to Cyprus for plasmapheresis described to us the nightmare he experienced when, after undergoing treatments at the center in question, he allegedly suffered severe thrombosis and sepsis, bringing him to the brink of death.

Citing criminal negligence, she accuses doctors and a second private clinic of complicity; according to the patient, they inserted a catheter into her femoral vein and left it in her body for 27 days, before she was ultimately admitted to Nicosia General Hospital in serious condition.

A second patient from the U.S., who had come to Cyprus during the same period for plasmapheresis to treat Long COVID symptoms, told us that she was referred by the same center in Larnaca to the same private clinic to have a femoral venous catheter inserted. She considered herself lucky that she did not suffer any complications, despite the fact that they left the catheter in her leg for four consecutive weeks.

A private vascular surgeon who had examined the woman from Canada after the catheter was removed and had confirmed the presence of a blood clot in her leg spoke to AlphaNews.Live, he revealed what he had observed happening at the time, stating that this was not the only case, but that he had been referred to 4–5 other similar cases.

The journey of hope that turned into a nightmare

The COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to all its other impacts on humanity, has also resulted in a chronic health problem for a large portion of the population. This is Long COVID, a condition that is currently estimated to affect approximately 400 million people worldwide. Chronic fatigue, insomnia, and POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) are just a few of the characteristic symptoms experienced by those suffering from Long Covid.

Since 2021, these individuals’ need to return to normal life has spurred the emergence of new alternative —though often not scientifically validated—treatments, including plasmapheresis, which, while it has been used successfully for decades to treat a number of conditions, its effectiveness in treating the symptoms of long Covid has not been proven.

Clinics and alternative medicine centers began popping up across Europe like mushrooms, initially in Germany and then in other countries, including Cyprus.

Last September, following the tragic death of singer Giorgos Mazonakis during a plasmapheresis procedure at a medical center in Athens,  the issue of alternative therapies came to the forefront, sparking a scandal in Cyprus as well, with revelations about unlicensed facilities offering treatments of dubious quality and effectiveness, promising miracles.

From the very beginning, attention turned to a specific medical center in Larnaca that had previously been the subject of complaints by the Ministry of Health, as it allegedly provided plasmapheresis treatments without the required license.

One of the patients who visited the center in question was C.K., a young woman from Canada who, wanting to relieve herself of the bothersome symptoms of Long Covid, came to Cyprus in November 2022 and underwent plasmapheresis there.

C.K. spoke exclusively to AlphaNews.Live and described the nightmare she went through when, after a series of treatments at that center, she was forced to be hospitalized in Nicosia after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and sepsis, coming, as she told us, “one step away from death.”

“I’m so angry at myself for all those ‘red flags’ I ignored.”

C.K.’s ordeal in Cyprus began almost immediately when the center in Larnaca informed her that the veins in her arms were too poor to be used for plasmapheresis, and suggested inserting a femoral venous catheter for blood access.

“They told me that if they tried using my arms and it failed, I’d still have to pay for the entire plasmapheresis treatment. This makes an already difficult financial situation even worse and makes you feel like you have no choice. I couldn’t afford to pay for a full course of treatment and then end up not receiving it. So I agreed to have the IV catheter inserted, but the procedure wasn’t performed at the clinic in Larnaca. They referred me to another private hospital.”

At the private clinic, C.K. told us that they took her to the Emergency Department without registering her as a patient, without first informing her of the risks of the specific medical procedure and without asking her to sign a consent form.

“The catheter was inserted by a pediatrician at that clinic under the supervision of a surgeon. He inserted it without using ultrasound, relying solely on palpation with his hands. As soon as he finished, I paid in cash, and they didn’t give me a receipt.”

From the very first week, our young patient told us that she began to feel intense pain at the site of the catheter, pain that radiated down to her thigh.

“I asked the staff at the center in Larnaca to examine me and assess my condition. I asked them to send me for an ultrasound or an X-ray, but they told me it wasn’t necessary. They told me I was fine and that it was just nerve pain or sensitivity because I had the catheter in my vein. I listened to them; I trusted them because I believed I was in good hands. The truth is, though, my gut told me that something wasn’t right.”

For weeks, C.K. struggled to undergo the treatments because, as she explained to us, every time they tried to use the catheter for plasmapheresis, it was constantly clogged.

“The nurse at the center in Larnaca who performed the plasmapheresis procedure would ‘unclog’ the catheter each time by flushing fluids and heparin through it to ensure blood flow. As the days went by, my leg began to hurt unbearably; it swelled and turned red until I couldn’t put any weight on it at all.”

With her anxiety reaching a fever pitch, C.K. filmed a video of her legs in the room she was renting and sent it to the nurse who was treating her. 

“The nurse at the center who performed my plasmapheresis told me it was simply time to remove the catheter. She told me to go to the clinic the next day to have one more plasmapheresis treatment first and then have the catheter removed. I followed her advice and went, but when we started, we couldn’t perform the treatment—the catheter was completely blocked. She couldn’t draw any blood at all, and my blood pressure was extremely low.”

That same evening, the nurse from the center took C.K. to the private clinic where the catheter had been inserted and removed it herself in the emergency room, without registering her as a patient.

“After the catheter was removed, my condition didn’t improve at all. Despite this, the nurse told me to go back to the apartment I was renting. But I felt I was in critical condition, and before I left, I asked her for help. I begged her to explain what might be happening. Her response was: ‘I can’t handle this here.’”

The next day, the young woman decided to send the same video of her feet to a doctor in the U.S. By that point, the video was already two days old. The doctor, unaware that the video was old, told her to go immediately to a hospital’s emergency room.

I informed the center in Larnaca that I was going to the emergency room, and then the same nurse told me she would come pick me up so we could go together. That night, I went to two hospitals. First to Larnaca General Hospital, where I was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and then to Larnaca Hospital for a CT scan, which was performed the next morning.

“Before being diagnosed with DVT, I had a fever for five days, and the site where the catheter was inserted was burning.”

Two days after her DVT diagnosis, C.K. was referred by the center to Larnaca to be examined by a private vascular surgeon, who confirmed the presence of a clot in her leg.

In the meantime, the young woman had expressed her concern to the Larnaca center that she might have an infection, but she was told that this was “impossible.”

“They had drawn blood from me at both hospitals I had visited for the DVT diagnosis. So, I had two blood draws on the same day. The results showed dramatic differences and clearly indicated an infection. The two hospitals were unaware that my levels had changed so dramatically within a few hours because this information had not been shared between them. The center in Larnaca, however, was aware of this because I had sent them copies of all my lab tests as soon as I received them, and they confirmed to me that they had received and reviewed them.”

As her condition continued to worsen, C.K. decided to share her symptoms and blood test results with a small Long COVID support group she had joined.

“I can’t describe how lucky I consider myself that there was a doctor from the United Kingdom in that group. She looked at my test results, contacted me immediately, and told me to go to the ER because it was very likely I had a septic infection. That woman saved my life. If I had listened to the call center, I would have died alone in a foreign country in an Airbnb.”

At Nicosia General Hospital, C.K. was diagnosed with a septic infection and was hospitalized in serious condition for days, fighting for her life.

“When the doctors treating me found out the cause of the infection—the catheter—they begged me to report the center to the authorities. I didn’t. I was so sick that fighting for anything other than my health was completely beyond my strength. Furthermore, the center in Larnaca refused to give me my medical records and blood test results.”

Permanent Damage

The final diagnosis in Cyprus was a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) approximately 1.07 meters long and sepsis.

Now, as she stated, C.K. has suffered permanent damage to the femoral vein at the site where the catheter was inserted and, as a result, a chronic blood clot that extends from the middle of her abdomen to her knee.

“This is what’s known as post-thrombotic syndrome. A swollen leg. Pain. Blood pooling. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on thigh-high compression stockings, and it’s only been a few years. And I’ll have to wear them constantly, for the rest of my life. Not to mention the cost of anticoagulants.”

Her vascular surgeon and hematologist in Canada have concluded that, in this young woman’s case, there can be no further improvement in the damage that has already occurred.

“My hematologist wants to switch me to heparin injections, in the hope that they might help with some of the symptoms. But they cost $800 a month, and I simply can’t afford them.”

While in Cyprus, C.K. underwent a total of seven plasmapheresis treatments, paying tens of thousands of euros for them.

“I felt very strange.”

At the same time the Canadian woman was in Cyprus for plasmapheresis, P.B., a young woman from the U.S., had also come to the same center in Larnaca for the same treatment.

The two women, who did not know each other, stayed in rented apartments for the duration of their stay in our country and traveled to the center on the scheduled days for their plasmapheresis treatments.

On the day C.K. was scheduled to go for her final treatment before the catheter was removed, P.B. was sitting next to her for her own treatment, who saw that the young woman from Canada was in poor physical and psychological condition and that the head nurse was trying in vain to unblock the site where the catheter had been inserted the catheter had been inserted.

C.K.’s condition alarmed P.B. , leading her to demand that the center’s administrators immediately remove her own femoral venous catheter, which had been inserted four weeks earlier at the same private clinic by the same doctor who had performed the insertion on C.K. as well.

“I didn’t realize how dangerous it was to have a venous catheter inserted into the femoral vein until after the fact. I was lucky not to have experienced any complications like C.K. did.”

Referring to her own experience, the American woman she told us that she was referred from the Larnaca medical center to the private clinic, and the catheter was inserted again in the emergency room by the same doctor.

“Yes, the same thing happened to me. At first I was alone in the room with him, and then he called in a whole group of students to watch! I felt very uncomfortable.”

At the clinic, both P.B. and C.K. paid the doctor who inserted the catheter 800 euros in cash, while for its removal they paid another 200 euros, again in cash, without, as they claimed, receiving a receipt. Meanwhile, on none of their visits there were they entered into any patient registry, which, as they both said, struck them as odd.

“We went to this clinic, waited, and then went into a room with the nurse, without going through any registration or screening process. We removed the catheters with C.K. at the same time, while we were sitting in adjacent beds in the Emergency Room. The catheters were removed by this nurse from the Larnaca center who had come with us, not by the doctor who had inserted them.”

To pay for her treatments, P.B. was forced to dip into part of the savings she had been setting aside for her retirement. She paid a total of 30,000 euros to the Larnaca center, seeing only a slight improvement in the first few weeks. However, all the Long Covid symptoms she had experienced before the plasmapheresis treatments quickly returned.

“If we hadn’t gone together to have the catheters removed that day, I believe C.K. could literally have died.”

The American woman, during the insertion of the catheter into her femoral vein, as well as afterward during the removal, made sure to take some photos with her cell phone, which she sent to us.

Upon researching the website of the manufacturer of the catheter used on P.B., we found that, according to the instructions provided, is not intended for placement in the femoral vein, but lists the saphenous, subclavian, and axillary veins as sites for venous access.

In our discussions with physicians, we were told that selecting the femoral vein for venous access is a last resort, as the placement of a central venous catheter in the femoral vein is associated with: an increased risk of catheter-related infection, an increased risk of venous thrombosis, greater difficulty in maintaining aseptic conditions due to the anatomical location, and a higher risk of contamination from the inguinal region. These reasons make the femoral approach less desirable for prolonged use when access via the internal jugular or subclavian vein is feasible.

“I suspected that some questionable treatment was being performed and refused to see their patients again.”

The private vascular surgeon who had examined C.K. after the catheter was removed and had confirmed the presence of a blood clot in her leg spoke to AlphaNews.Live, making shocking revelations about what he had observed happening at the time.

“A few years ago, these two doctors approached me to examine a patient from Canada who had a catheter in her femoral vein, which had been removed and who likely had a blood clot. I’m an external consultant at the private hospital; I don’t have an office there. So I saw the patient at my own office. I had been told that this was a private patient not covered by the National Health System (GESY). In total, they had sent me four or five patients like this one. I saw all of these patients in my office. As I took their medical histories and spoke with the patients, I eventually realized that they had been fitted with catheters because they were undergoing a certain Covid treatment. They were all foreign nationals. In fact, these patients had told me that they were undergoing a COVID-19 treatment that isn’t allowed in their home country, but is approved in Cyprus. “But what kind of treatment is that?” I thought. “What’s approved?” So I suspected that some controversial treatment was being administered, and from that point on, I refused to see any more of their patients. I practice medicine as the textbooks describe it.”

“We have absolutely no connection or collaboration with the center in Larnaca in question.”

In a guidance document for patients at the center in Larnaca that we found online, the practice of inserting an intravenous catheter for plasmapheresis was described, with reference to the private clinic to which C.K. and P.B. had been referred.

We sought the private clinic’s position on the allegations made to us, while also asking whether there is any collaborative relationship with the center in Larnaca.

In its response, the management of the private hospital emphasized that “it has never maintained any collaboration or relationship, direct or indirect, with the center in Larnaca, nor was it aware of its activities.” Furthermore, as they stated, they do not refer patients to the center in question, do not accept referrals from it, and do not participate in plasma exchange therapies for the treatment of Long Covid.

Regarding the use of their name and logo, the management of our private hospital informed us that in early October they were made aware that their name and logo were being used, without authorization, in material related to the center in question. They immediately requested their removal, which was carried out. They also noted that “any reference to ‘collaboration’ with the Hospital is inaccurate and was made without its knowledge or consent,” while reserving “all their rights regarding this unauthorized use.”

Regarding the status and involvement of the physician in question, who allegedly performed the catheterization, the private clinic told us that this physician “is an independent private physician who rents a medical office within the hospital and practices medicine under his own professional responsibility.” They also noted: “With regard to the actions you mention, he was not acting on behalf of the hospital nor within the framework of any collaboration between the hospital and the center. According to the information we received from him, his involvement was limited to the insertion and removal of intravenous catheters, upon request, without any involvement in the operation of the center’s hemodialysis machines. Regarding the issues of information and consent that you raise, the physician informed us that all patients were informed in writing about the procedure and its potential risks and signed the relevant consent forms, which he keeps on file.”

It is worth noting that as part of our investigation, we requested in writing the position of the Larnaca center in question regarding the complaints brought to our attention by patients, but to date we have not received any response.

We would like to remind readers that the police investigation—following a complaint by the Ministry of Health—into the center in question was completed several days ago, and the case file has been forwarded to the Legal Service for further instructions, which are pending.

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