Coronavirus: Granddad gets positive result day after death

Grandfather Fotios Karamitos died the day before receiving a positive coronavirus result and the family is still in the dark of the source of the infection.

The Karamitos clan: grandson Foti, left, Fotios Karamitos, granddaughter Vas, wife Sophia, granddaughter Sophia and daughter in law Kate.

Eighty-year-old Fotios Karamitos had a bad cough when his doctor ordered him to be tested for coronavirus on August 3.

Mr Karamitos died at home on August 7. One day after he died, on August 8, the test results came back positive.

The father and grandfather was a healthy man but had a history of heart trouble and underwent a quadruple bypass when he was younger, his son Michael Karamitos said.

“In my words we lost an individual for no reason at all,” he said.

“He had heart issues but he was fit and healthy.”

Mr Karamitos said COVID-19 caused his father to suffer an ­arrhythmia and pass away at home when he could have potentially lived if he had received his test results earlier and been taken to hospital.

“[It] was appalling, I thought, especially when he suffered for five days a horrific cough,” Mr Karamitos said.

“At the end of the day, we thought it was maybe just the flu … had we known that [it was corona­virus], we would have rushed him to hospital.”

Mr Karamitos said his father was a vibrant and strong man who had worked as a builder since he moved to Australia from Greece when he was 15 years old.

“He was involved in the Greek community, a humble guy and a quiet achiever,”he said.

“He didn’t say much but whatever he did say was very concise.”

Since the positive test results on August 8, the immediate family has all been tested for COVID-19.

Fotios Karamitos’s wife and two of his children have tested positive and have fevers and coughs. Michael Karamitos tested negative and is self-isolating.

“It’s not only sad, having lost our dad, but the circumstances leading up to the testing, finding out afterwards that there were positive cases amongst us,” he said. “The sad thing is we can’t even bury our father because we’re all in isolation.”

The funeral of Fotios Karamitos will be held nearly three weeks after his death so his closest family is be able to attend.

Michael Karamitos said the family still didn’t know how their father became infected.

On Monday, Victoria recorded 230 people in their 80s in hospital, with three in ICU.

People in their 80s represent the state’s most common age group for coronavirus deaths, ­accounting for 142 of 334 deaths recorded since the pandemic began.

Those aged in their 90s or above were the next most common age group with 102 deaths.