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There are souls who stray from “this vain world” for whole days. Vangelis Spanos is not such a case. There are also souls full of emotions, goals and creation. This is the case of the doctor and businessman Vangelis Spanou. An intense life, connected with medicine, entrepreneurship and family. A path hand in hand with the Battle of Spanou. In all battles until the last. Karmic the name of your lifelong partner. A tragic ending. Who would say that …
Life is sarcastically unpredictable. The man who made a brilliant mark as an inspiration and creator of a leading provider of private medical services, I mean “Biomedicine”, who gained a market share of more than 30% in a completely inhospitable business environment, the boss of 3,500 employees! … An unimaginable number, especially! Years of continuous crisis, also owner of the hospital units that inaugurated his arrival in the field of secondary care, was going to be one of the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
NSS doctors fought for his salvation for a month, in “Sotiria” – synchronized with the common destiny of all citizens in this pandemic – where he left his last breath, without his partner being able to give him the caress he gave of his years of student. Sarcastically unpredictable and dishonorable life! And then, unintelligent fellow citizens question the existence of the coronavirus….
The story begins with a restless fifth-year medical student in Thessaloniki who comes to life with a double goal. To succeed professionally but also to win the heart of a first-year English Philology student, Machi Abatzoglou.
Coming from a poor family in Sindos, Thessaloniki, but with entrepreneurship in his DNA, he devised a number of ways to survive, such as selling used medical books or writing ancillary notes (the famous SOS) for students.
In 1970 he achieved one of his goals. She married Battle and in 1972 she went to London on an IKY fellowship to specialize in laboratory endocrinology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School of Hammersmith Hospital. They settled and worked for eight years while continuing their academic activity, earning Master’s degrees in Biochemistry and Ph.D. in Endocrinology. For the story, all his works were typed by his wife in parallel with the raising of their two children, George and Dimitra, who had come into their lives.
In 1980 they return to their homeland. It’s nostalgia, it’s the belief that the time was right, it’s the encouragement of McDay’s mentor, who believed in his abilities so much that he decides to become a shareholder in his first company. “To target Athens. To proceed independently with its own laboratory and I will also put money” advises him, ignoring the sentiment that guided Vangelis to his “homeland” Salonika.
First step, in 1981, the year of the founding of Biomedicine, with a social capital of 200,000 drachmas and with the sole purpose of carrying out hormonal analyzes, filling a great gap in the field of Health. A workshop next to the Hilton. Employees two… guess what! The Battle takes over as secretary and blood donor. The reputation is spreading among the medical world, that is, endocrinologists and gynecologists with the code “the first Greek who knows how to count hormones “ since there were laboratories but they had problems with the determinations. The fact that he was also working on a hospital laboratory quality control program, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, helped him understand what is happening and identify the difference by gaining credibility, which gave him success .
We are talking about an extremely hardworking man, who, as his old friends inform me, along with his wife traveled the Athens-Alexandropolis route with his newly acquired car, visiting the microbiological laboratories of the province and introducing them to Biomedicine.
Follow; In 1986 inauguration of a four-story building on Michalakopoulou street. A space with an aesthetic stigma of luxury in a time when the “personalized” were the workshops in the department kitchens. The first single multifunctional diagnosis in Europe, but also the first ultrasound, then magnetic tomography, etc.
I think … how nice to write hits and overlook what looted a businessman. The scourges, the adversities, the tripods … Do you think everything flowed? It is worth mentioning the lack of a legal framework and therefore the consequent lack of encouragement from companies in the field of Health. Ή, the sudden decision, by Presidential Decree, of a violent transfer of ownership of companies that operate legally, so that 51% of the share capital is transferred to doctors, the prohibition of branches, the impossibility of inheriting other companies και the businessman does not spit blood …
Do you think someone can get to the emblematic Biomedicine building in Ampelokipi? “The centrals”, as they are called. The first automated diagnostic laboratory in Greece and perhaps in Europe. With integrated internal quality control programs, according to international standards, achieving important distinctions. ISO 9001 and ISO 15189 certified services, in collaboration with Mayo Clinic, General Electric’s third R&D research center and Roche’s reference center for complete laboratory automation.
At the point of the great ascent, Vangelis Spanos indulges in extra-professional dreams for the first time … Living permanently in Spetses, farming the land and catching catfish. What paths do people take to finally consider the least as happiness?
Spetses is now “martyrdom” for his life partner and his friends, as a place of remembrance of his presence-absence. Many remember him saying at a party: “Money is good but above all it is family”. Grandparents of seven grandchildren, 52 years together, have never lost a partner. As a friend of his used to tell me: “They were breathing through each other”.
The story has a bad ending. His participation in a visit to a restaurant was fatal. As if most had to get sick. The next day, the fever for him and the lack of liking for her, mobilized them. The tests were positive. He was rushed to a state hospital for Covid, but with the certainty that his health would soon recover, it was deemed necessary. It didn’t happen that way. For the first time, a month apart, without even his touch. The continuation of life finds her alone.
Six months later, perhaps as the best monument, the company advances at the same pace of growth and high goals with his son George as president and CEO. A family business, its members are healthy, they are all well groomed and well informed. The aim is to continue the development of the company in Cyprus. Achieved.
The battle, of course, is always combative. As I studied their lives, I was impressed by the number of people who referred to their “fluid” charity. No drumbeats. With daily action. The homeless have something to say …
I wanted, my readers, to write this business story. We are talking about balance sheets, knowledge, goals, sometimes triumphs and sometimes disasters. But I really like the story of the creators. Of these particular minds. Not at all accidental. Methodical and hard-working. In this case, Vangelis Spanos who changed the history of diagnostic centers in our country.
I also looked for information in old posts. Massive luxury editions that sounded “success stories”. How many companies justified the titles on time? Most waved their petals. I like to discover people behind the balance sheets. And behind them relationships. Everything is relationships.
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