Mother to face accused medics

Christopher Rochester died in Rhodes in June 2000

The mother of a County Durham tourist who died in a Greek hospital, is preparing to face medical staff accused of causing the death of her son.

Under Greek law the families of victims are allowed to address those accused of crimes.

Pam Cummings will speak directly to five medical staff accused of causing the death of her son Christopher Rochester.

Mr Rochester died in a hospital in Rhodes after falling 30ft from a hotel balcony in June 2000.

The 24-year-old, from Chester-le-Street, later bled to death in the hospital. His family claim it was because of poor treatment from a medical team on night duty.

What we want is for these people to know that what they did was wrong and that taking his life through neglect was wrong George Cummings

It is claimed that it took 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and that Mr Rochester was then "bounced about" on a stretcher and left lying on a hospital trolley despite being in severe pain.

Five medical staff are charged with manslaughter by negligence and are due to stand trial in Rhodes Town Court on Wednesday.

Mrs Cummings said: "The Greek judicial system gives the victims of crime a voice and allows me to speak about the effect of Christopher's death.

"I will be representing my son, my family and all the friends and supporters that have worked tirelessly to get us here.

"I'm terrified about it all. It's not just the standing up in court, it's just that it brings everything back for me.

"I hate the idea that the five hospital staff will be sitting just yards from me and fear being intimidated.

The apartments where Christopher Rochester fell

"The court is like a zoo with people in and out, shouting and using their phones but I have to do this for Christopher."

A UK inquest into Mr Rochester's death heard allegations that his injuries were not properly diagnosed and that he should not have died.

It was also discovered when his body was returned to Britain that one of his kidneys had been removed without the knowledge of his family.

The inquest was told it appeared a Greek pathologist, who carried out an autopsy on Mr Rochester's body, swapped one of his kidneys with someone else's organ before returning the body to the dead man's family.

Three doctors and two nurses were subsequently accused of causing Mr Rochester's death by negligence.

Christopher's stepfather, George Cummings, added: "What we want is for these people to know that what they did was wrong and that taking his life through neglect was wrong.

"If we win then hopefully this will never happen again to a holidaymaker or even a local person."