Look at the photo above. That is Andreea — laughing with two enormous shepherd dogs, more excited than the children beside her.

Today she is on life support. And nobody will tell her family why.

Andreea Marin, 38 — "AuntDrea" to her nieces and nephews — taught English in France, earned a master's in education, and spoke five languages, fluent in three. Back home in our village, Dolani, she choreographed a dance crew of local girls to her favorite band, 3 Sud Est. She traveled everywhere with her cat, Thomas. She lit up every room.

She also battled bipolar disorder, PTSD, and severe anxiety for years — and she did everything her doctors asked of her, her medication exactly as prescribed. Her doctors wrote that her greatest fear was being separated from her family. She was on the legal path to permanent residency and citizenship, her green card in process through our mother. She took every proper step. In the end, the system's gaps and errors failed her — and her greatest fear came true.

Her family begged officials to keep her medication going in detention. They were told not to worry. On Friday, October 23, less than two weeks after she was taken into custody, Andreea was found unresponsive and airlifted to Banner Desert Medical Center. What officials told the doctors is hearsay — and her family has seen no marks on her neck. It was hospital staff, not ICE, who found her family on Sunday, two days later. No one in authority has explained anything since.

Her doctors now tell us her thalamus is severely damaged — and the damage is irreversible. Her brain went without oxygen for at least ten minutes. She is in a natural coma, in a vegetative state, and her hospital testing is still ongoing. Her body is pulling through — her lungs are healing from pneumonia, and she is out of sepsis — but her brain remains unchanged. What is left are only brain reflexes — her body cannot live on its own; it is the machines doing the work. We still hope for a miracle. But the signs are not there.

Her parents are there most of the time, and we go when we are able. Extended family have come to say their goodbyes. Every day of it is a living torture — watching her in this state, chained to the bed like a criminal. She is innocent and pure. She should never have been there.

So we play 3 Sud Est at her bedside. A stuffed cat rests on her chest, because Thomas cannot be there — and we tell her he is, sleeping on her like he always does. Her little pocket Jesus rests on her gown.

Read the Arizona Daily Star's full story, then ask what we ask every day — what happened to Andreea, and did she get her medication?

https://tucson.com/news/local/border/article_a2d8543f-bcd7-4d2d-8a43-296c933e2fd6.html

Why we are asking for help

No family is ready for this. Ours is a working family, and this tragedy has brought costs we cannot carry alone — with the hardest ones still ahead.

There are two roads in front of us, and we have to be ready for both.

If Andreea survives, she faces a long road of care and rehabilitation, with her family at her side. That takes money we do not have.

If we lose her, we want to give her the farewell she deserves — a funeral and burial worthy of her ($14,000). Nobody saves up to bury a 38-year-old daughter and sister.

And on either road, we need answers that do not rest on the word of the people who held her. If the Medical Examiner does not perform a full autopsy, an independent one — by a pathologist who answers to this family — costs up to $6,000, and it has to be arranged in time. Records, filings, and travel and lodging for a family keeping vigil around the clock make up the remaining $3,500.

That is the $23,500. Every dollar will be accounted for, in public updates. If less is needed in one place, it goes to her care or her memorial — nowhere else.

We did not choose this. But we will not face it alone, and we will not let Andreea's story end without answers.

Help us bring the girl in that photo back — and if we cannot, help us find out why.

— The Marin Family, Surprise, Arizona