Juan Pablo Medina was in the middle of a shoot when he felt a stomach ache.
After something so simple, months of convalescence in the hospital followed, several operations and the amputation of his right leg.
He is still in recovery.
The Mexican actor had suffered a silent heart attack, a dangerous blow and very difficult to detect.
It was July 15, 2021 and he knew that the life he had known up to that point was over.
After months of absolute discretion, the interpreter has broken his silence with
GQ Mexico magazine.
Medina (Virginia, USA, 1977) was at a great moment in his career.
After two decades of work, her face had become a sure hit on the screens of Mexico.
The actor had just played Julián, in
La casa de las flores,
an international Netflix production, directed by Manolo Caro, who made him one of his fetish performers.
On July 15 he was filming the series
Primetime
, where he was going to star.
After what happened, he has left any film project up in the air.
The most important thing, he says, is to recover his health, physical and mental.
Actor Juan Pablo Medina reappears in an exclusive interview for GQ Mexico.
Courtesy
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in Mexico and silent heart attack is a disease that threatens one in five Mexicans.
One of its main risks is the formation of clots in the blood vessels.
It was the case of Medina: clots formed in the intestine and in the legs.
Hence the abdominal pain that forced him to stop filming.
The actor tells the magazine the denial of the first moments.
Despite being surrounded by cables, unconscious at many times, his hands swollen "like balls", unable to move his arms and having undergone several surgeries, he thought: "Why am I fucking with the production?"
A conversation with his partner, also an actress Paulina Dávila, and the unconditional support of his family made him realize how lucky he was to be alive.
“I was in a serious situation.
They offered to save my life, but the solution was amputation, ”he tells
GQ Mexico
.
From the moment he made that decision, he received psychological support, help that he had never received and that he now says he does not intend to leave.
She also began the search for what was to become her inseparable companion: a prosthesis for her right leg from a German company.
“I thought that in hell she would walk with the prosthesis, but it is not like that.
I am relearning.
Sometimes the stump hurts, but here we go”, she confesses, but she adds that she has already been able to go play tennis.
Medina came to think that his entire career was over after the amputation.
Accustomed to the roles of a confident and attractive man, how could he now be a successful lawyer?
However, now he assures that he does not want to get ahead of himself, go through all his processes, focus on his mental health, master the prosthesis and continue with his physical recovery: “To later be able to interpret the characters that come to me in the future.
Things have to go step by step."
So far, an Ariel Award nomination for his work on the film
The Idealist Club
has been a boost.
“I don't know if what happened to me made me a better actor.
The experiences help in the construction of emotions, so probably yes;
but I'm not worried about that”, he concludes in his interview, “I also have the illusion of being able to help others with my example”.
Juan Pablo Medina is our April cover and exclusively tells us all about the event that changed his life a couple of months ago.
We open thread 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/ZnEWMaDobR
– GQ Mexico and Latam (@GQMexico) March 24, 2022
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