Javier Acosta, 36, received euthanasia this Friday after a serious illness left him in a wheelchair a few years ago and recently worsened with no guarantee of recovery.
This young man from Bogota was left in a wheelchair nine years ago after a traffic accident, and contracted a bacteria supposedly in a swimming pool that caused a serious infection that reached his bones, disease that they were unable to control and ended up developing blood canceras he told Caracol News.
The Colombian was suffering from osteomyelitis, an infection that affects the bones, passing through the bloodstream and spreading to nearby tissue, according to the Mayo Clinic. This disease usually worsens in most caseseven despite treatment.
After five years of fighting the disease, the treatments had no effect and the disease began to develop in his head. As he was no longer able to walk, the young man decided that he would rather undergo euthanasia than live in a hospital waiting for the cancer to end his life.
For this reason, the young man, father of a 12-year-old girl, this past Monday made the decision to opt for euthanasia, which in Colombia is legal in cases of terminal, serious or incurable illnesswhich was carried out this Friday.
Acosta argued that he made the decision because he knew what the disease would bring. He also said that he would not want to harm his family or hinder their path to a “normal life.”
She also shared on social media that, contrary to what many may think, she did think about her daughter before asking for euthanasia, as she was one of her main motivations.
“Imagining my life without legs, lying in bed, on antibiotics, watching my daughter take care of me and losing the opportunity to have a childhood and a youth, I said: ‘yes I want it’“Javier said, reiterating that he would not want his family to feel tied down by his deteriorating health.
Acosta was a big fan of football and was a fan of the Millonarios team. Radamel Falcao even became interested in the case, calling him when he was in the clinic and telling him that he would dedicate to him the first goal he scored with the Bogota team, which he joined this semester.
Hours before he was to undergo the process, a group of fans of the Millonarios club went to the outside of the clinic where he was hospitalized, asking him not to undergo assisted death. (I)
