“It Has Been 26 Years With This Face”: Colombian Acid-Attack Survivor Considers Euthanasia Again

Twenty-six years after an acid attack and 87 surgeries, María Consuelo Córdoba says she is again considering euthanasia as she struggles to continue her recovery.

Córdoba told Caracol Radio that her former husband threw acid directly into her face after arriving home and claiming he had been robbed. She initially thought the liquid was liquor. When the burning began, she ran to a water basin on the first floor, while the man fled.

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I was leaving the house for the first floor, where he was standing. He came and threw the entire bottle of acid at me. I did not know it was acid. I thought it was liquor. He threw it in my face. As it was absorbed, it started to burn, so I ran to the water basin on the first floor. He ran away.

The homeowner took her to Meissen Hospital, where doctors gave her fluids and morphine for the burns and pain. She was later transferred to the burns unit at Simón Bolívar Hospital, where she remained for two years without relatives or acquaintances. Hospital doctors collected money to help her obtain a room nearby. During that period, she helped care for children and organized raffles to raise funds.

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They gave me little bits of advice, telling me to continue with the operations, to continue with whatever we could do here, because I was left without a nose, without a mouth, without a chin, without anything.

Córdoba says the attack left her without a nose, mouth or chin and affected her breathing. She underwent 87 operations over the following 26 years to reconstruct her face and address complications from the injuries. After the procedures at Simón Bolívar Hospital, she says staff told her they could not offer more surgery through the treatment process she had received. The remaining plastic procedures, she explained, cost more than she can afford.

Colombia’s health-promotion entities have authorized Córdoba’s euthanasia process, according to the description. She has spoken publicly again about the decision while describing the continuing physical and financial difficulties that shape her recovery.

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At the hospital they told me, you cannot have surgery here anymore because we have already done everything. The remaining operations are plastic procedures.