Cheering on & Supporting Andrés (Andresito) Boza

Andres Esteban Boza, my beautiful, strong and talented little brother, is currently in the ICU in an induced coma due to bleeding in the brain from an arteriovenous malformation - a complete freak thing that occurred randomly and out of the blue a couple of nights ago.

This is an emotional time, for myself and my family, filled with worry, love and hope. Please join us in prayer and sending him love and positive words and vibes. Many tests and operations have already been done, and there are many left to go, so if you find it in your heart to give us a helping hand - love, support, prayers and positive vibes, food for my mom who will be in the hospital with Andres this entire time, or any money you can spare to help us with some of the medical bills - we would greatly appreciate it and you would be helping this special young man and his devoted family during these challenging times.

Money is just money though - that’ll work itself out eventually. What’s really important is being there for Andres spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. Just knowing that so many people are thinking of him and praying for him means the world to us.

He loves cycling, eating, adventure, drawing, exploring in nature, swimming, traveling, playing soccer, playing around with our dog Lua, spending time with family and friends, and much more. He is a beautiful person and definitely does not deserve this. If you find yourself enjoying some of these activities in the next few days and have a moment to think of Andres and wish him all good things, we know it will help him.

He is a very unique, intelligent, thoughtful, creative, funny, strong, tough and dedicated kid - a beast and a complete warrior - and we believe he is going to come out of this just fine and will be back riding his bike, eating gross amounts of food, and making jokes in no time.


A little bit of background on what has happened thus far:


On Friday night, July 24th, as my mom and Andres were packing and getting ready for a road trip/camping trip in Colorado, Andres began to feel ill. He started vomiting excessively and became unconscious once my mom helped him to bed. She acted fast and called 911. Paramedics stabilized him and took him to the emergency room. They did a CT scan and found bleeding in the brain.

We have since found out that he has an arteriovenous malformation in the frontal lobe of his brain. This means that an artery and a few of his veins got a little jumbled up - almost like a little knot - and on Friday night that little knot burst. Apparently, this was something he was born with. It’s just one of those things that you don’t know you have until something like this happens.

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, they operated on Andres to drain out the blood that had accumulated in his brain. The operation went well. He has remained attached to those tubes that allow the brain to drain. A few drops come out here and there.

He is currently in an induced coma and is stabilized. The right side of his head is shaved and has around 15 staples; he’s been hooked up to a ventilator and many other machines and tubes. We’re so used to him looking carefree, laughing, stuffing his face with food, riding his bike for hours on end, so it feels very strange to see him in this condition.

During the day Saturday, his cranial pressure kept rising when he would cough so they have administered a drug that paralyzes the body. They’ve also attached electrodes to his head to monitor and make sure he doesn’t have a seizure. On Sunday morning, his cranial pressure rose again and doctors decided the best course of action would be to remove a small piece of his skull to reduce the pressure - a possibility they mentioned early on that could occur and is fairly common in these situations. That operation also went well. Later, when they operate on him again, they will place the piece of skull back in its place.

Doctors want to wait a few days before another surgery to see if this rupture begins to heal itself and scab over. They plan on operating on him again, on Thursday or Friday, to administer a glue-like substance to the rupture to completely close it up. A couple of days later they will operate again to remove the entire malformation. At that point, they will wake up Andres. Only then will we see if the blood that had pooled up in his brain Friday night has damaged anything.

We have many things to be grateful for in this situation:

1. This occurred at home, while someone was home with him - this could’ve happened to him at home alone, or alone while on one of his long bike rides, or while they were in the middle of nowhere on their road trip.
2. My mom, paramedics and doctors acted fast. The pool of blood in his brain was not there too long.
3. The malformation is located in the frontal lobe of the brain. There are less chances of complications occurring than if this occurred toward the back of the brain.
4. Andres is a very healthy and strong young man. He is a talented athlete, dedicated cyclist, and is so incredibly tough.



Due to covid restrictions, my mom cannot leave the room and will be staying with Andres throughout his entire stay at the hospital. My dad has been allowed to visit momentarily and has talked to him and rubbed his feet and hands. It seems like Andres looks calmer after my dads’ visits. I’ve gotten the chance to speak to him through speaker phone on many occasions to tell him how much I love him. On one occasion, he slightly moved his body when I began to talk - I feel like he was listening to me.


Thank you for reading and for helping all of us out. The most important thing is that we remain strong and positive. Andres will get through this and we’ll all get to see his precious smile, hear his adorable laugh and share many more memories with him very soon!

If you have any questions or would just like to reach out, feel free to call or text me.


Thank you and God bless,

Sarah, Andres, Lua, Monica, Guillermo and the entire Boza Boulton family