Mother appeals to court over son's death

Feb 5 2008 By Graeme Whitfield

The mother of a British holidaymaker who died after falling from a hotel balcony today urged a Greek court to allow her the chance to grieve properly.

Pam Cummings’s son Christopher Rochester died in excruciating pain after being left unattended on a hospital trolley for three hours.

Mrs Cummings and her husband George - Christopher’s stepfather - are in Greece attending the retrial of three doctors accused of their son’s manslaughter.

They have fought a long campaign to get justice for their son, which has seen the original conviction overturned in the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court order a re-trial.

Christopher, from Chester le Street, County Durham, died from internal bleeding at Rhodes’ Andreas Papandreou Hospital.

The 24-year-old had fallen 40ft from a Faliraki hotel balcony while on holiday with his older brother Keith and friends at the popular tourist resort in June 2000.

Mrs Cummings told the three judges at the trial on the island of Rhodes: ``I am standing here, coming to Greece for the sixth time to see justice upheld for the death of my son.

``On Sunday June 11, 2000 at 7am I received a phone call from my eldest son Keith informing me of Chris’s death.

``He told me Chris had had an accident and was taken to hospital: ’Mam, they did nothing for him, Mam, they did nothing for him’.

``Almost immediately, through my shock and grief I understood something terrible had happened."

In 2002 Stergios Pavlidis, Georgos Karavolias and Mihalis Sokorelos were convicted by a Greek court of manslaughter by neglect and sentenced to three years imprisonment. Their sentences were deferred until after they appealed.

However, three years later they successfully appealed the conviction. Mr and Mrs Cummings immediately challenged the ruling and the Greek Supreme Court ordered a re-trial.

Speaking through an interpreter, Mrs Cummings called on the judges to uphold the decision made in the first trial - that the doctors are guilty of manslaughter through negligence.

``If Chris had been given the attention he was entitled to, he would still be alive today," she said.

``It keeps being said that Chris was drunk and uncooperative. Even if he was drunk and uncooperative because he was in agony, he was still entitled to the best medical care.

``I am here today to see justice carried out for the second time. It is only proper that these people by punished in the same severe way as they were by the court of the first instance."

Only Pavlidis and Karavolias were in court as Sokorelos claimed he was ``too stressed" to attend the hearing.

They listened intently as lawyers for all three doctors cross-examined Mrs Cummings, as she also faced a barrage of questions from the three Greek judges.

Mrs Cummings said what her son had gone through in the hospital must have terrified him.

``Chris’s last few hours were spent in excruciating pain, knowing that nobody was helping him in his distress and telling his friend David he was dying," she told the court.

``What a horrific situation to happen in hospital, where trained staff should be on hand at all times - Chris must have been terrified."

``I have never felt anger over the loss of my son but I have over the last seven years felt overwhelming grief and will never be able to come to terms with his death.

``My son suffered an untimely death, an unnatural death, but most of all, an unnecessary death.

``There is so much of Chris’s life I have missed. I will never have the chance to see him get married or have children - my grandchildren - this also adds to my loss.

``All I want now is for these sentences to be upheld and maybe then we can go home and start to grieve.

``Until this happens I will not rest, my family and friends will not rest, but most of all, Chris will not be at rest in the hands of God until he sees that human justice has been done.

``These people will never know the emotional and psychological damage they have caused - we are all devastated."