Experts probe island hospital

Experts from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO) are on Zakynthos investigating a spate of postoperative complications at the Ionian island’s hospital.

The team was dispatched after the hospital reported five cases of post-surgical complications, one fatal. On Sunday, a 41-year-old woman died at a hospital in Rio in the northwestern Peloponnese after her condition deteriorated dramatically following routine surgery at the Zakynthos facility.

The hospital has closed all of its operating theaters since Friday and KEELPNO’s team is looking particularly for dangerous bacteria and germs, though a preliminary check by hospital officials ruled this out as a cause.

The union of state hospital workers, POEDIN, however, said in a statement following the 41-year-old’s death that the Zakynthos hospital has just one cleaner for an area of 15,000 square meters.