Family of Greek heiress who died after insect bite threaten NHS with legal action

A powerful Greek family have accused the NHS of negligence after their daughter died from an insect bite in London.

Marissa Laimou, 30, was found dead in her Knightsbridge townhouse in central London on September 11, just days after coming back from a holiday in Greece.

A family friend said the theatre actress desperately sought treatment from two hospitals, a private hospital and University College London Hospital (UCLH), after she began to feel unwell but was discharged. Hours later, she was found dead in her family home.

Her wealthy family are now threatening legal action against the hospitals, the Daily Mail reports.

A relative of the Lemos family, who are powerful tycoons in the Greek shipping industry, told the Daily Mail: ‘They are going to go against them of course. This is 100 per cent negligence. Marissa is gone because of them.

‘It would have been nothing to keep her one night. They could have monitored her, given her antibiotics, they would have saved her. She went to the right place for treatment. They should not have let her go.’

They added that the 30-year-old was in remission for breast cancer and a rare blood disease at the time of her death.

In her final days, Marissa, who had been rehearsing for a new play, had returned to London from a summer holiday with her family on the island of Porto Cheli when her health began to deteriorate.

She began to suffer from dizziness, itching, a high temperature and other signs of infection on September 9.

The family say Marissa called for an ambulance where medics recorded her temperature as 39C, but she decided to stay home and would seek further treatment if her condition got worse.

The next day, she took herself to Leaders in Oncology Care (LOC), part of the private HCA Healthcare UK, which had treated her for chemotherapy.

After being administered an antibiotic drop and antihistamines, medics decided to call an ambulance to take her to UCLH due to the severity of her situation.

At the NHS hospital, nurses carried out blood tests on the heiress and decided she did not need to be kept in hospital, the family claimed.

A family friend said Marissa texted a friend: ‘Nobody is checking up on me, nobody is coming, I don’t know where they are, I’m still itching, I feel dizzy, I don’t feel well.’

Marissa’s family said she was discharged at 6.30pm with antibiotics to take at home, but still felt very unwell and could not eat.

The next morning she was found lifeless in her bed by the family housekeeper.

The family, who are still awaiting post-mortem results, claim to have seen the Marissa’s official diagnosis from doctors, which was a ‘toxic effect of venom’ caused by an ‘animal or insect bite’.

One relative criticised her NHS care, saying: ‘It is negligence. No doctor examined Marissa. Only the nurses saw her and did the blood tests and passed the test to the doctor and the doctor said you can be discharged, that’s all.

‘Marissa’s mother, Bessy, believes her daughter has gone because of them. They should not have let her go, definitely. If it was not so urgent, her oncologist would not have sent her in an ambulance, they would have said go in an Uber or go later.

‘It was urgent. They didn’t address it with the serious way they should have done.’

Bessy told Greek media that ‘all of England is crying’ over her daughter’s death.

She said: ‘My daughter had survived cancer and died from an insect.

‘She was a girl with so many gifts, all of England is crying, all her doctors too.’

Marissa’s family are from Athens in Greece, but her and her twin brothers, 26, were born and raised in London.

Her father, Diamantis, is part of the wealthy Lemos family, one of the best known names in Greek shipping dating back one hundred years.

Marissa, however, treaded her own path working in nurseries and as a reception at a Holiday Inn.

Her real focus was theatre, with the former musical theatre student preparing for a performance of Oliver before she died.

The Inner West London Coroner’s Court said: ‘The coroner is dealing with the sudden death of Marissa Lemos and investigations are ongoing.’

Metro has contacted HCA Healthcare UK and UCLH for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.