Greek bureaucracy demands coma patient … appear before committee deciding on disability

Bureaucracy in Greece once more reared its ugly, life-threatening head, as it is about to basically end the life of a 25-year-old cancer patient.

Comatose 25 year-old “Viliana” is hospitalized in Irakleio, Crete,  struck down by cancer. She is now uninsured though because she didn’t “wake up” to be judged by committee members tasked with establishing the validity of her disability claims.

Viliana suffers from a brain tumor. She and her family are fighting against the disease with no help from the state. Her cancer is a form of gene mutation that her mother and her brothers all have as well, which ultimately causes the tumor.

Starting last February, the 25 year-old suffered from a relapse in the brain’s myeloblastoma, and had a second tumor removed, after the first surgery in 2008. Since then, she’s been in a coma.

While she was in a coma, she turned 25, thus losing the right to be insured as a protected family member under her father’s insurance fund. Long before she turned 25, however, her father had already started the bureaucratic process required to certify his daughter as a person with severe disability, so she wouldn’t remain uninsured…

The committee responsible for judging on the girl’s disability called the family today and invited them to Athens, to examine the girl. The Athens-based doctor, however, refused to see the girl since she… “wasn’t there”. The girl remains uninsured, and the family now can only count on the help of doctors and staff in the Crete hospital.

Meanwhile, in Chania, Crete, where the family’s home is, the mother who is also suffering from the same disease, had her colon removed, as well as most of her small intestine. Around her stomach permanently hang three bags. Her only sustenance is an IV drip that the family has to pay for themselves, as well as any medication that the household may need.

The mother said that she doesn’t care if she dies, as long as her child is alright. The previous government, she stated, through introduced legislation, lowered the woman’s disability from 80% to 40%. She is considered able to work…