"Immediately after the attack, she felt that her feet and shoes were soaked in blood. She lost a lot of blood. She grabbed her head first to see if she was injured, then her body, and then she could feel her legs getting wet from the wound."
With these words, Angeliki Depola, mother of the 39-year-old Greek woman who was injured by the explosion that rocked the Istanbul pedestrian street of İstiklal, described to AMNA what her daughter experienced in those tragic moments.
"My child was very lucky. She was miraculously saved. She was very scared, as blood was gushing out from the wound," she said, adding that her daughter was saved by a miracle.
"If it wasn't for this family, which I am really sorry for as these people lost their lives, my child would not be alive now, she would have been killed. We wouldn't talk to her right now, you understand how she was saved, it was a miracle. She told me herself," she emphasised.
As her daughter described to her, this particular family was just three metres in front of her and it was they, along with another couple, who bore the brunt of the bomb attack. There were too many people at the scene, some lost their lives, others were injured.
"I want to offer my condolences to these families who lost their loved ones so unfairly," the 39-year-old's mother told AMNA.
She also explained that her daughter has already left Istanbul to come to Thessaloniki.
"She had paid for a ticket to come on Wednesday, but she's finally coming by ambulance," the mother explained.
"The only thing that interests us is for the Turkish ambulance to cross the border immediately and for my niece to return to Greece. She will be treated in a hospital in Thessaloniki," said the 39-year-old's uncle, Panagiotis Depolas.
"In Turkey," he noted, "while she was hospitalised and injured, they asked her for money to undergo an operation to stay there, which we were not interested in, as we wanted her to be transferred to Greece from the first moment," he said.
The shock wave killed a family in front of the Greek woman
Meanwhile, the news that the Turks wanted to charge for her hospitalisation in their hospital has caused reactions.
The father of the unfortunate woman spoke on Monday about his daughter's condition on ERT.
"My daughter is in the hospital in Istanbul with a wound on her leg. They put a plaster on her, they stopped the bleeding and tomorrow she was to be operated on," he said.
"Anna was at a distance of 6-7 metres from the point of the explosion, but she was saved because there were people in front of her, specifically a couple of newlyweds, who bore the whole shockwave. They were killed, and my daughter was behind and escaped with the injury only on her leg," her father added.
At the same time, he emphasised: "My wife was crying. She got us a number from the Turkish consulate and it was my child. We heard my child crying, saying that she is in the hospital and we were shocked."
The Turks wanted to charge the Greek woman for her hospitalisation after the explosion
Officials at the hospital told the Greek victim that she would be charged for the hospitalisation and surgery.
"We spoke with the Consul General of Greece in Istanbul and they told us that they will return my child anytime to Greece, but this is delayed because she needs to have the shrapnel removed from her leg, which was scheduled for Monday," the woman's father said.
"I was told that she would have an epidural for the surgery, which she would be billed for, as well as for the surgery and the hospital stay. I told them that it is unacceptable for a foreign citizen, who was a victim of a terrorist attack, not to receive the medical care they deserve," he continued.
Talking about the moments that followed after the explosion in Istanbul, the father of the injured Greek woman said that "my mind immediately went to the child, but they said in the first hours that there was no Greek among the injured."
"Yesterday morning we received a call from a phone with an unknown number and heard my child crying and screaming and saying she was in the hospital. The phone was from a person from the consulate, I thank them very much," he said.
"We will see what she is entitled to as a victim of terrorism in Turkey," the father added.
As explained by the lawyer of the girl's family, Apostolos Lytras, the decision to transport the injured woman to Thessaloniki by road was made as it was considered that it would be the fastest way to return to Greece.
At the same time, he noted that "when something happens to a Greek in Turkey, it is not something simple. Everyone's mind is wondering if they will suffer or if they will return. In the end, the procedures were quick and coordinated."
Finally, he emphasised that "we are dealing with a victim of terrorism. Let the girl come to be treated and we will see what a victim of terrorism in Turkey is entitled to," he said.
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