"I'm going home," was the last thing he said to a friend on the phone.
That call was given around 2 in the morning on Saturday, January 27, half an hour before a brutal accident that left him unconscious.
Emiliano Gómez (30)
, an Argentine who has lived in Brazil for 5 years,
crashed with his motorcycle
when he was returning from Buzios to Cabo Frío, in Rio de Janeiro.
Due to the strong blow, the young man from La Plata suffered multiple injuries,
had to undergo surgery and is hospitalized in serious condition
.
Her mother, who is facing health problems and for whom he settled in the neighboring country to help her pay for her medications, traveled to Brazil to be by her side.
In the midst of pain and uncertainty over her condition,
the family asked for help and started a collection.
In 2019 Emiliano left Buenos Aires to settle in Cabo Frio, the popular tourist city of Rio de Janeiro located about 10 kilometers from Arraial do Cabo.
There he works on
tourist tours as a guide and is also a photographer
.
In an effort to progress, he was studying international tourism.
All with one purpose: to help Karina, his mother who lives in Argentina and
is retired due to disability.
She has various health problems, ranging from mobility difficulties to heart difficulties.
For this reason, much of the money that she collected from her work, Emiliano allocated to her family.
"
He was the breadwinner for all of his mother's medications
, her life was religiously working to save money," say those who know him.
One of them is Yair, another Argentine whom he met in Brazil.
It didn't take long for them to forge a friendship and they even decided to share a rental with other young people in Cabo Frio, a destination chosen by many compatriots who leave in search of new horizons.
Yair was precisely the one who heard Emiliano's voice for the last time.
"On Friday night he left for Buzios with his motorcycle and around 2 in the morning he called me to let me know that he was returning. I went to sleep and when I got up the next day I didn't find him," he tells
Clarín.
He always warned his closest surroundings about his movements, so uncertainty and fear invaded the scene.
His cell phone was no longer responding
, and the visit to the area police station was in vain.
There was no sign of Emiliano.
With Florencia, another Argentine friend, they decided to go to a medical room in the area (Prompt Care Unit - UPA) and were referred to the city hospital.
As soon as they asked if any injured young man had been admitted in the last few hours, the answer was conclusive:
"Is he an Argentinian? Yes, he is here. He had a motorcycle accident, he crashed into a pole."
Emiliano has lived in Brazil since 2019. Photo: Instagram
At that time, Emiliano was about to be transferred to the Araruama regional hospital - about 40 kilometers from the center of Rio de Janeiro - because he was "very serious" and his care required highly complex equipment.
He entered intensive care with an induced coma
.
It was there that her friends learned of her worrying condition:
an open fracture of the clavicle and shoulder, a bruise on the lung, and another on the head.
Shortly afterward they were collecting data on the accident.
"He didn't kill himself because he was wearing a good helmet
," Yair reveals forcefully.
And he provides details about those moments of anxiety: "We arrived without knowing what had happened. If he was drunk, if he had been hit, if he had been robbed..."
A filming from a camera located on one of the corners of the intersection of the streets where the accident occurred, about 5 kilometers from arriving at his house, clarified the situation a little.
It showed a motorcycle passing by the place at the same time that Emiliano was returning.
Upon suddenly encountering a donkey hill, he lost control, veered off the road and hit a pole.
"It was high and was not marked. It seems that he did not stop in time," analyzes the family.
The young man from La Plata was driving his motorcycle and traveling alone when he suffered the accident.
Photo: Instagram
Emiliano
lost consciousness
and was quickly rescued by fire personnel.
They had to operate on him
that same Saturday for the fracture in his collarbone.
"It came out through his back. It was an exposed break. The doctors told us that he has a long recovery," they said.
Furthermore, his head was very swollen.
As the days went by, the inflammation went down and there were also improvements in relation to the lung injury.
However, at no time was she able to fully regain consciousness.
She cannot speak and barely opens her eyes for a few seconds
, without achieving a clear look.
"Please son, wake up, I need you"
Thanks to some savings and the help of Emiliano's friends, his mother was able to pay for the flight to travel to Brazil and be with the oldest of her three children.
However, she recounts the pain that invades her these days and asks for the help of everyone who can collaborate with the recovery of the young man from La Plata.
"They told me that I have to tell him what happened to him. He supposedly listens to everything. Faced with my desperation of seeing him in bed, I asked him
'please son, wake up, I need you... I need you to be awake,'
" he says. Karin, with a broken voice.
Emiliano is a photographer and guide on Arraial tourist tours.
Photo: Instagram
Despite the fact that they lower the dose daily, Emiliano continues with sedatives and is intubated, and they have not yet disconnected him because "he becomes aggressive."
This is how his own mother explains it to
Clarín
from Brazil: "He gets nervous as if he doesn't understand what is happening. He moves his fingers and even tears fall. He recognized me right away.
Seeing my son like this, don't let him wake up from everything, it's terrible
."
From the hospital they told the family that within a week or ten days they could change Emiliano's ward, which would require that
they begin to take care of all the expenses
.
"Here we are all working and contributing, but
it is not enough for us
," explain his friends, who started a collection on social networks to raise funds to be able to pay the important medical fees.
The data to collaborate
From Argentina, through Mercado Pago:
ALIAS: MERMAID.FOREST
In the name of Micaela Banos
CUIT: 27-34708295-9
From Brazil, via transfer:
PIX CODE: 22999793792
In the name of Florencia Micaela Berndt
Nubank account
From Brazil, through Vakinha Online:
Help for Emiliano