There is a woman in Greece – named Roula Pispirigou – who is considered the reincarnation of the devil. 34 years old, she is accused of having killed her three daughters (aged 9 years, 4 and six months). Since March 2022, she has been held in a maximum security prison. She has always defended her innocence, and there are scientists who believe that the truth could be on her side. Independent experts of great prestige defend that the three girls, and possibly Roula herself, shared a similar underlying pathology that affects the heart and liver. Hence they understand that the death of the three little girls could be due to natural causes. Pispirigou’s case is very similar to that of the Australian Kathleen Folbigg, who spent 20 years of her life in prison accused of the death of her four babies (two girls and two boys), who died between 1989 and 1999. A few months ago, They granted her clemency after finding reasonable doubts of her guilt, and last week they acquitted her of all charges. Science confirmed that the most likely cause of the death of the two girls was cardiac arrest due to a genetic variant. The Spanish immunogeneticist Carola García de Vinuesa had a decisive participation in this investigation, who traveled to Athens last November to also testify in the Pispirigou case.
Everything was triggered by the death of the eldest girl, Georgina, 9 years old, which occurred in January 2022. The little girl, who suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest while she was in the hospital, accumulated a string of pathologies: she had suffered a previous arrest – which It left her quadriplegic and required the implantation of a pacemaker; she suffered from epilepsy (without responding to treatment); He was fed through a gastrostomy tube and had lost a quarter of his weight… He ended up dying in the hospital and, initially (and pending the results of the autopsy), the cause of his death was declared undetermined. . The post-mortem forensic analysis revealed pathology in the liver and heart, although she also detected ketamine in her body.
The toxicologist at the Aglaia Kyriakou children’s hospital – the center of Athens where Georgina was treated – stated that she had not been given this substance, and that is where the accusation against Pispirigou began to be formulated, who was blamed for having injected it, causing her death. Indeed, the medical history does not include the use of ketamine (which is an anesthetic), although neither does rocuronium, which is the substance that the medical staff claimed to have given to Georgina shortly before she died during endotracheal intubation. Interestingly, rocuronium leaves no trace in the autopsy.
Following Georgina’s case, the police went back in time to reassess the cause of death of her two sisters (Malena and Irida), who had previously died. The first, four years old, died in 2019 nine days after starting chemotherapy to treat leukemia; The second (six months), she did it in 2021 with severe congenital heart disease. Both deaths had been considered natural at the time, but after Georgina’s death the criterion was modified stating that both had been asphyxiated. Consequently, Roula was charged with triple murder.
Last October, the Greek pathologist who is part of Roula’s defense team – Dr. Rania Dimakopoulou – came into contact with the Spanish immunogeneticist Carola García de Vinuesa. Dimakopoulou knew that Vinuesa had participated in the resolution of the Folbbig case, and that is why she asked him to review the Roula process. Not only did she do it, but she also attended two sessions of the trial last November to testify.
It was in court where the Spanish immunologist – whose laboratory is located at the Francis Crick Institute in London – presented part of the conclusions of the report that she prepared together with her colleague Todor Arsov. In said document – ??which was read before the judge – they argue that “the multiple pathological findings in the three girls constitute reasonable medical explanations for their natural deaths and suggest a hereditary congenital liver and heart disease with variable expressiveness.” In this sense, they affirm that “there is no clinical or scientific evidence to suggest that the mother was responsible for the death of her three children.”
In the case of Georgina, they remember all the pathologies that she accumulated (epilepsy, possible congenital heart disease – she had a pacemaker -, pneumonia, quadriplegia, chronic/congenital liver disease) and the fact that she suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest in the hospital, having suffered another one year before.
They also delve into the substance (ketamine) found in Georgina’s body. In this regard, they include the reflections of Professor Robert Flanagan, a renowned toxicologist with experience in forensic toxicology whom they contacted. He recalls that “ketamine is a drug widely used in surgical procedures” and, consequently, considers that “most likely” it was the hospital’s own health workers who administered the substance to the little girl.
He points out that it is not unusual for “in emergency procedures the use of a drug to be omitted” from medical records. Furthermore, he argues that the fact that ketamine was not found in Roula’s possession or in his home “is an important factor” and, in this sense, he describes as “extremely” important to access “hospital records to establish availability.” of that substance in the hospital.
Regarding this aspect, the report highlights that in 2020 the center carried out a clinical trial in which ketamine was present, which indicates “that it was used routinely in the hospital two years before Georgina’s death.” In addition, remember that up to five vials of this substance are part of the center’s emergency medical kit, so “they are available to anesthetists and clinical staff for use in emergency procedures.” Likewise, Georgina’s own hospital reports stated that medical staff had administered ketamine twice previously, while she was hospitalized.
Vinuesa and Arsov also include in the report the position of Peter Fleming, pediatric intensivist and expert in sudden infant death. He maintains that “the anomalies found at autopsy in both the heart and liver have some similarities to those found at autopsy of his two sisters, raising the possibility of an underlying inherited metabolic cause or contributing factor.” .
In this sense, he reasons that “the insertion of a pacemaker in Georgina in June 2021 is further evidence of an underlying heart condition that could contribute to her repeated episodes of collapse.”
The report, read in court, also notes that “very limited genetic research has been carried out” in relation to Georgina, Irida and Roula. It indicates that Malena (4 years old) “was not sequenced or analyzed” and that genetic tests have not been performed on her father.
“It is necessary to do good genetic research because when you have three girls with a similar pathology such as vacuolar degeneration of the heart and liver, you have to suspect an inherited disease,” Vinuesa explains to La Vanguardia. “We hope that independent experts can access the genetic studies that have been done and do more complete ones on the entire family,” she adds.
Like her daughters, Roula is also sick. “She is receiving treatment for heart failure of unknown etiology,” pathologist Rania Dimakopoulou tells this newspaper. “She also suffers from systemic lupus erythematosus with organ involvement, according to the opinions of the doctors who treat her,” she adds.
Dimakopoulou, who like Vinuesa has also testified at trial, says he “believes in medical and forensic science” and hopes that the lawyer assisting Roula “can prove his innocence.”
