August Update: My mother and her partner had a car accident on August 12th, 2025. She had finally been able to purchase a caravan to have a more stable roof over her head after having to have her arm amputated (read the whole story below), but now all of that is gone. The caravan with most of her belongings are destroyed, and she doesn't have where to go. Fortunately nobody was severely injured, but she desperately needs money for food and to rent a place to stay for the upcoming months. Please help me to spread the word. I honestly don't know what to do about all of this anymore.

Sincerely,

Sol

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My name is Andrea Ríos (Argentina 1973), and in 2015 I had an accident that changed my life forever.

One day, while preparing to guide a horseback ride to watch the full moon, my horse got scared, and I fell, landing with all the weight and force on my left arm. At that moment, I felt a crack and a sharp pain.

In a hospital in Natal RN, they placed a metal plate with screws to join the different parts of my humerus, which had been shattered into multiple pieces. Over time, this plate proved to be infected with various bacteria, even before being implanted in me. This caused a tremendous infection in my body in 2018, leading to sepsis that almost took my life. Miraculously, I survived this sepsis and another one in 2021, even though very few people can survive a generalized blood infection.

After losing my faith in Brazil's healthcare system, I moved to Spain, a country that had already welcomed me with open arms in 2000 and where my children had grown up. There, I had to undergo several surgeries in different hospitals, where they attempted to replace the metal plate with a titanium prosthesis, using cement and external prosthesis. It was then that my body began rejecting all the new implants. Bacteria had remained in my arm, hidden in the bone, leading to a diagnosis of chronic osteomyelitis.

In a hospital I won't name, I was offered an innovative surgery in which they would use the fibula from my left leg to replace my humerus. Despite my children's reluctance to risk damaging my healthy leg to save my arm, the doctors advised me to undergo the surgery, saying it would be the best for me. All my children came to visit me in Spain for the operation, which lasted 15 hours and in which they transplanted bone, veins and arteries. When I finally opened my eyes and saw my family sitting by my bedside, the only thing I could do was scream "Please, kill me. I want to die. This pain is unbearable."

Three weeks later, an order was issued for giving me physiotherapy. One would think physiotherapy for my leg, right? But the order was wrong... and that's why the physiotherapist came to my hospital room and started working on my freshly operated arm.

CRACK. My soul and my newly transplanted bone broke at the same time in an instant. Once again, I found myself in a black hole.

In 2022, with no hope of saving my arm through another "innovative" surgery, we reached the end of the road, and the only option was to amputate my left arm at the shoulder.

I was granted a disability rating of 70%, with a non-contributory pension, which is very small. This has made it very difficult for me to pay for basic needs. Between the pain, surgeries, my herniated discs in the lumbar area and all the daily medications I need to take, I haven’t been able to return to work since 2018. This causes me a lot of anxiety and makes my recovery harder. My post-traumatic depression has become chronic, and not having enough money or the possibility of working drains me physically and emotionally.

❤️‍ What we raise:

Any money that we raise will help me live a more dignified life while I wait to receive compensation for the lawsuit against the hospital where they broke my freshly operated bone.

I want to stop worrying every month about whether I’ll be able to eat, be able to save money to fix a broken pipe, and maybe even afford massages that will help relieve some of my pain. I just want to have a normal life again.

Dreaming of a better future helps me stop looking back.

Thank you to everyone who wants to help me make this dream come true. Your support means so much to me and my family. Reliving all of this once more and showing myself in such a vulnerable way is difficult, but I believe it’s worth trying.

With much love,

Andrea