End of the odyssey of a stranded psychiatric patient: a desperate gamble and 40 hours to go home

Javier Firpo

08/18/2021 12:05

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 08/18/2021 12:05

The nightmare ended for Valentina Romero, the 22-year-old young woman from Mendoza who was stranded in Spain for more than a month, together with her partner Iñaki Domínguez, in very

tight economic and housing conditions and, especially, without her psychiatric medication

, which produced weeks of sleeping no more than two hours per day and suffering from panic attacks.

"Desperate, with no other alternatives, I

opted for a move that worked out miraculously for me

, but it could have been a disaster according to the trip," she now tells

Clarín

.

Valentina's face expresses an indisputable exhaustion but her mood, on the rise, has nothing to do with what she denoted two weeks ago, when she spoke for the first time with this newspaper

and revealed that "she

was made a zombie" because she had been unable to continue her treatment

because she never imagined that she would be stranded.

"What happened with my boyfriend I do not wish anyone, it was really suffocating and distressing. Not knowing if you will sleep on the street, if you can eat every day or how it will affect not having my pills," he enumerates while caressing Pipa, his terrier.

Valentina and Iñaki flew on Saturday the 14th, at 19 Argentina time, through Iberia.

They arrived in Montevideo

, where they spent a handful of hours in a boarding house and then got up early and

 took the Buquebus to Buenos Aires

and, once in Retiro, get on a bus to Mendoza, where they disembarked this Tuesday.

"I think we

were in 'travel mode' for more than 40 hours

, although it seems to me that with the wait there were more. We took a taxi, train, bus, plane and boat, we only needed a helicopter," she laughs.

Before this tidal wave materialized, the Mendoza couple had arrived in Madrid on June 26 and

the original plan was to spend 20 days there to finish the citizenship documents that the 25-year-old engineer was managing

.

"It all seemed like a honeymoon," remembers Valentina with a bittersweet flavor.

Until rescheduling and cancellations became commonplace and their return was postponed four times.

"The airline told us that for October or November and

I knew that in these conditions I would not arrive alive on that date

. I had to do something."

Valentina and Iñaki, anxiously waiting for the flight to Montevideo at the Barajas airport

Iñaki is a mechatronic engineer,

works in oil wells in Mendoza and Neuquén, and his job was at serious risk

, "they couldn't wait any longer, and I stopped taking Neuryl (anxiolytic), Plidan (muscle relaxant) from one day to the next. ) and Sertralina (antidepressant), with what that means for a psychiatric patient.Until July 16 we were in a hostel in Madrid, where we paid 60 euros per night but

 in no way were we going to be able to continue there amid the uncertainty.

We had brought part of our savings and we calculated the expense until that day. "

Faced with such a question, a glimmer of light appeared among the dark clouds: an Argentine family, known to Mendoza, opened the doors of their home in Valencia, a tempting but not at all comfortable offer.

"We had to manage our passage with Iberia or go to the Barajas airport being in Valencia, clearly that 300 kilometers away was going to be a difficulty, but we had no choice: it

was that or sleep in the streets of Madrid,

" says Valentina, lying down in his bed, kissed by his dog Pipa.

Migratory permit.

Valentina and Iñaki had to manage it and pay $ 800 to enter Uruguay, a springboard to return to Argentina.

He said at the beginning that he "bet on a play." What was it about?

"In the stranded chat that he was part of, an Argentine from Buenos Aires, a certain Gonzalo, one day left the group, but I kept in contact with him. That's how I found out that he managed to travel and I insisted so much that he explained to me How he did it: he changed the destination, he flew to Montevideo, but beforehand he got

an immigration permit to enter Uruguay

through an agent

. Of course, that costs a lot of money, but I began to find out until I managed to contact that manager, in Montevideo, that I have to say, he got ten points. "

Via WhatsApp, the manager assured him that he could get the long-awaited permission in a period of 48 to 96 hours.

"He also 

told me that you had to pay it in advance and it cost us both $ 800.

The silver issue was a headache. We had spent everything we brought for the 20 days, our parents sent us our savings, about 200,000 pesos that disappeared, then other family and friends lent us an additional 1,000 euros to live and move the basics in the month like stranded ...

And now we had to ask again.

It was very hard, but our old men made every effort to get the money".

Waiting for the Buquebus to set sail from Montevideo.

There was less and less time to go home.

Valentina's doubts, who until then had not commented with her boyfriend Iñaki "so as not to generate false expectations", had to do with "

suffering the story of the uncle and that the manager, a total stranger, was someone who would take advantage of our despair

. I only had the word of that person who could travel, but it was the only way out and I went ahead and it went well. As soon as we had the permits confirmed, last Thursday, I started calling Iberia.

I'm not exaggerating, I must have dialed the I called a hundred times, between ten at night and 4 in the morning

. Once they attended to me, we were able to change our destination to Montevideo ".

Fate seemed to wink at them. They already had the flight confirmed for Saturday the 14th and the immigration permit to enter and stay in Montevideo. "We had to continue solving problems, but the heaviest one already seemed to be on the way.

That Thursday afternoon we did the PCR for 120 euros and then we got two tickets in Buquebus from Montevideo to Buenos Aires for $ 45,000

. Silver jets were leaving us ", he slides with suffering. 

"As something strange had to happen," says Valentina with a smile, when they were about to land in Montevideo, "the commander warns that due to weather issues, a dense fog, the landing would be in Ezeiza, although it could not be done either, so the The next destination was Córdoba.

With Iñaki we thought we were at the touch of Mendoza, hopefully they'll let us go down

.

"

During the long three-hour wait at the Pajas Blancas airport, Valentina begged the commander to get off, exposing her entire mental health history. There was no case. "

We flew to Montevideo and we knew we still had a long way to go

."

A long journey ... In hours they still had a longer journey than the one they had made from Madrid to Montevideo. "But we tried to get stronger and be clear that we were hours away from getting home." They were able to enter Montevideo without problems, they

reserved "a farthing pension" for 20 dollars, they slept for three hours and at 5 in the morning of Monday they were doing the swab

in the Uruguayan port. "At one point we no longer had a clue of the day we were living in."

Once in Buenos Aires, they walked to Retiro, exhausted.

It was noon on Monday and the bus would leave at 6 pm There was still a long breath left, which was tempered with an austere but extensive lunch.

"Luckily the bus was at half its capacity and

although it was like twelve hours to get to Mendoza, we did travel more comfortably than on the plane

... This was my first trip outside of Argentina ... they don't catch me more".

ACE

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