Santiago, Chile, Feb 17, 2009 / 13:19 pm
Carlos Abarca visits his wife Erika Sotelo three times a day. She has been in a coma for the last fourteen years, after suffering complications during surgery at a hospital in Santiago. This devoted husband tells how his day-to-day life is with his wife and how in these difficult circumstances, his affection for her “is stronger than ever” and that he always “hopes for a miracle.”
This dramatic and moving case, in contrast with that of Eluana Englaro, who was killed in Italy after her father requested that her feeding tubes be removed, was made know by the Chilean daily El Mercurio.
Carlos doesn’t bring flowers to Erika although she loves them. “In her state it could be dangerous,” he explains. For this reason he prefers to bring her nightgowns, the only type of clothing his wife has been able to use since March 3, 1995, when she fell into a coma during a hysterectomy in Santiago.
Retired from the police force, Carlos visits Erika three times a day and maintains the hope that he will see her wake up: “With her being alive, there is always the hope that at any moment a miracle will happen,” he said.