Family of coronavirus victim Fotini Atzarakis open up about ‘week from hell’ after
Fotini Atzarakis had only been living at St Basil’s aged care for less than two weeks when she caught coronavirus and later died in hospital. Her heartbroken family has revealed the distressing and traumatic rollercoaster the past month has been.
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The grieving daughter of an aged care resident who died of the coronavirus says it has been a “week from hell” for her devastated family.
COVID-19 victim Fotini Atzarakis, 77, caught the contagious virus at St Basil’s aged care facility and sadly succumbed to it on Wednesday at the Austin Hospital after a 10-day battle.
Mrs Atzarakis had been a resident at the mismanaged nursing home for less than a fortnight when the “preventable” tragedy unfolded, her family say.
“It is a rollercoaster ride that no one wants to go on - it is heartbreaking,” devastated daughter Kathy Bourinaris said.
“It is one thing to lose a parent, but my mum should not have died like this.
“For the last 10 days of her life, no one could be by her side in the hospital. She would have been terrified. She was fragile as it was, she would have felt so alone. We were distraught.”
Mrs Atzarakis suffered from Parkinson’s disease and her family including her loving husband George moved her to the Fawkner facility hoping to provide the best care possible.
“We decided to put her in a nursing home as a family,” Mrs Bourinaris said.
“We thought, ‘she would be safe and taken care of’ but did we get that bloody wrong.
“This should not have happened. This was preventable. She was in for one and a half weeks before all hell broke loose. It has been a nightmare.
“I don’t even want to drive past that hellhole. The government keeps saying ‘we must protect the vulnerable’ but it will not leave my head. They have done nothing.
“It is a bloody shambles.”
Mrs Atzarakis was loved and adored by her three children Kathy, John and Manuel as well as her eight grandchildren.
“That was her legacy in life, it was all about family - everybody loved her,” Mrs Bourinaris said of her mum.
“She loved life. She just wanted to celebrate the simple things.
“She was a beautiful person, she was a lovely, kind person. I may be a little bit biased but I loved her to pieces. She was loved by all.”
Mrs Bourinaris said she last spoke to her mum on a Zoom phone call a week ago before the virus made her unresponsive.
“It has broken us,” she said of the ordeal.
“There have been too many wrongs, it has been so unjust in so many ways.”
The family will now prepare a funeral for their beloved mum and grandmother.
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