The political world was plunged into grief by the sudden death of Apostolos Vesyropoulos, who passed away at age 59 following a cardiac arrest. The New Democracy secretary was at Kalogrias beach in Halkidiki, enjoying vacation with his family, when he felt unwell while heading to his hotel and collapsed.
An off-duty lifeguard and a doctor who were at the beach immediately rushed to provide first aid and began CPR. After approximately 20 minutes, an ambulance and EKAB motorcycle arrived, and for 40 minutes they attempted to revive him using CPR. He was subsequently transported to the Agios Nikolaos Health Center, where his death was confirmed.
Apostolos Vesyropoulos: His battle for defibrillators
As the NGO “Kids Save Lives” reminded in their post, Apostolos Vesyropoulos had intervened decisively to install approximately 2,000 defibrillators in schools and communities.
According to the NGO, as deputy finance minister in 2021, Apostolos Vesyropoulos had accepted a request to reduce VAT on the purchase of these devices, recommending it to former finance minister Christos Staikouras, resulting in the institutionalization of a VAT reduction on defibrillators to 6%.
As the NGO adds, today “four years later, life is UNFAIR to this man,” as he “who helped with his recommendation to install approximately 2,000 defibrillators in schools and communities, had to wait for the ambulance to bring a defibrillator, something that in rural areas means delays and reduced survival chances due to great distances.”
When Apostolos Vesyropoulos’s funeral will take place
Apostolos Vesyropoulos’s funeral will be held tomorrow, Saturday 23/08, at the Holy Metropolitan Cathedral of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Alexandria, Imathia, the politician’s hometown. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to attend.
The funeral service will be held at 12:00 noon on Saturday, while his body will be at the Holy Church from 10:00 in the morning.
Who was Apostolos Vesyropoulos
Apostolos Vesyropoulos served as deputy finance minister and was responsible for Tax Policy and Public Property matters from 2019 to 2023.
As Anastasios Stefanakis, president and co-founder of the Kids Save Lives organization, who has worked for about 20 years at EKAB Halkidiki, tells Voria.gr, it was around this time in 2021 “when we went to Vesyropoulos’s office and presented our plan for increasing defibrillators at various points across the country.
We also asked him to make a pivotal move: to reduce VAT on defibrillators to encourage citizens and organizations to purchase the life-saving device. The then deputy minister accepted and even helped install 2,000 defibrillators in schools!“
According to Mr. Stefanakis, Apostolos Vesyropoulos immediately recommended to the then finance minister, Christos Staikouras, reducing VAT to 6% for defibrillators. “Within days this became state law and defibrillators throughout the country increased rapidly to reach today’s quadruple number compared to 2021,” he adds.
Fate, however, was very cruel to him, and although today there are approximately 70 defibrillators in the municipality of Sithonia, no such device has been installed at the beach where Apostolos Vesyropoulos was located.
