CALI.- To their 60 years, Victor Escobar arrives this Friday, January 7 to apply, without the presence of the media, which would be the first euthanasia in Colombia not for terminal disease, but they are incurable.
The procedures in search of the procedure have been lengthened two years, going through guardianships and other legal procedures. A decision of the Constitutional Court opened the option to those who pass a health picture of overwhelm that leads to cruelty.
Lawyer Luis Carlos Giraldo, who advises him, said that an agreement was reached with the scientific committee of the Health Promoting Companies (EPS) and the clinic, under reservation.
“I feel immense tranquility, I do not fear what is to come”, Escobar told The Associated Press. “They have told me that the procedure will be slow sedation first, so I have time to say goodbye. Then there is the euthanasia injection, which will be something painless, a very quiet death. I trust in God that all this is like that, ”he said in a soft voice as he resisted abdominal pain.
Victor Escobar, who was a transporter, suffered a serious accident 36 years ago, followed by Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, partial paralysis, and hypertension in the last 15 years.
This Friday, Víctor Escobar, father of four children, You will be away from home with your family and you will enjoy it from the morning. There he will share time with Diana Nieto, his partner for 15 years.
Escobar insists that they help his partner find work, especially in clothing, so that he can support himself.
At 3:40 p.m. he will arrive at his home, in order to say goodbye to the media and then he will leave for the Health Provider Institution (IPS) who will perform the procedure for you.
You will only speak for a few minutes and answer three previously known questions.
He does not want the media to accompany him to the clinic later, which requires that his name be kept in reserve.
“Sharing his last hours with me is enriching, the best gift he will leave me … ‘bring me seafood casserole and then we will have lunch ‘… he told me many stories that will be reflected in a book, ”lawyer Giraldo Montenegro wrote on Twitter.
In this case, the mayor of Cali, Jorge Ivan Ospina, who is also a doctor, considers that “it is very difficult issue some concept Faced with this case, since as a doctor, taking care of life is essential and, therefore, the hopes of this must always be maintained ”.
The local president added that life must be linked to a “good quality, to be able to enjoy it without being a dependent person or suffering from pain or disability or non-mobility and, in that sense, I try to understand the patient’s decision who will undergo this procedure ”.
For Ospina Gómez, each person “must make their decisions, accompanied by doctors who provide sufficient information and are analyzed and valued from different points of view.”
In youth, Escobar was cargo vehicle driver and traveled through Colombian routes.
He was 24 years old when a colleague’s vehicle was rolled over and he was crushed against his own truck, beside which he was standing. He went through multiple treatments and three surgeries column.
After a long treatment he recovered and moved to another workspace in a laboratory and believes that the presence of asbestos affected him.
In October 2007 he had the first stroke, which occurs when a clot or fatty mass obstructs the blood supply to the brain. In January 2008 the episode was repeated.
He suffered, then, a right hemiparesis (neurological condition that makes it difficult to move one half of the body). It also resulted in enlargement of the right side of the heart.
Lost memory and should have gone to recognition therapies to learn to move and even to eat.
Then they diagnosed him Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Epoc), which has led to bleeding episodes. In 2015 he entered the operating room for a new Colunm surgery. To this was added the diabetes e hypertension.
He struggled for years to recover, but never found a proper process to live with dignity.