Source : Perth Now news
A Colombian woman left with a severely disfigured face after her husband threw acid at her says she is so exhausted by decades of treatment that she wants to die.
Maria Consuelo Cordoba needs two plastic tubes protruding from her nose to help her breathe and has only a small opening where her mouth once was.
The 58-year-old struggles to eat, cannot work and is still waiting for further reconstructive surgery.
The Bogota woman has undergone more than 80 operations and spent lengthy periods in hospital since she was attacked by her then-husband in 2000.
Now 26 years on, she says she is physically, emotionally and financially exhausted and no longer wants to keep living.
Ms Cordoba appeared wearing a mask over her heavily scarred face during an interview with Colombian broadcaster CityTV this week, revealing the tubes she relies on to breathe.
She said that spends her days walking the streets of Bogota begging for money to pay for the small room she rents.
“I don’t want to live like this anymore,” she said.
Ms Cordoba, originally from the department of Choco, moved to Bogota with her husband nearly three decades ago in search of work.
She said that he attacked her after she refused to return to Choco with him.
“When I opened the door he threw the acid at me,” she said.
“I didn’t know it was acid because he had it in a bottle of liquor. I just thought he was drinking.
“When I went out he threw that liquid in my face.”
Ms Cordoba said that her husband fled as she felt the burning sensation spread across her face.
“He ran away and I felt like it was burning, so I went home to throw water on it,” she said.
Ms Cordoba said that she met Pope Francis during his visit to Colombia in 2017, telling him about her physical and emotional suffering.
She claims the Pope persuaded her not to seek euthanasia, making her promise that she would keep fighting and telling her Colombia would help her access the surgeries she needed.
“He told me, ‘Colombia will help you get the surgeries you need’,” she said.
“But you know what? No one has helped me. I’m worse.”
Ms Cordoba’s latest interview quickly went viral, prompting an outpouring of anger from viewers who questioned why she had been left without adequate support.
Colombia’s health entity Capital Salud has since confirmed that Ms Cordoba has been approved for euthanasia, while saying it will continue to provide her with medical care.
Capital Salud said it would support whatever decision she ultimately made.
“Maria Consuelo will continue to be supported with respect, humanity and dignity,” it said.
“We will be available to attend to all her health needs.”
Colombia was the first Latin American country to decriminalise euthanasia and remains one of the region’s most progressive countries on assisted dying.
