Latest / Libro Abierto Interviews ENGLISH / I was part of the 1968 movement, and October 2 wasn’t my day to die. Mario Díaz Mercado

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I was part of the 1968 movement, and October 2 wasn’t my day to die. Mario Díaz Mercado · Libro Abierto Interviews ENGLISH

0:00
Speaker 1: Diego was involved in an accident in the early morning
0:02
Speaker 1: hours of March 15, 2014. Among many other consequences, he
0:07
Speaker 1: suffered an intracranial fracture and a coma for a month.
0:11
Speaker 1: It's a miracle that Diego is alive. This is a
0:14
Speaker 1: story of a near-death experience and survival, and it's an
0:18
Speaker 1: open book.
0:26
Speaker 2: Please tell us your name, age, and what you do.
0:30
Speaker 1: Diego Diaz Mercado Salazar. I'm 28 years old, and I
0:34
Speaker 1: work in sales of plastic resin for plastic backhand bars.
0:41
Speaker 3: What studies do you have?
0:43
Speaker 1: I studied for my degree in business administration after a
0:47
Speaker 1: period of about three years at best. I got a
0:52
Speaker 1: master's degree in soccer, which is what I've always wanted
0:57
Speaker 1: to do.
0:58
Speaker 3: Are you single, married?
1:00
Speaker 1: I'm married. I've been married for four months now. I'm
1:03
Speaker 1: expecting a child. They're due in September, so I'll soon
1:07
Speaker 1: be married and have a child.
1:10
Speaker 3: The accident you had was in the early morning hours
1:13
Speaker 3: of your 19th birthday. Okay, so were you going.
1:17
Speaker 1: To turn 19? I turned 19.
1:19
Speaker 2: Diego, tell us how you spent your birthday, regardless of
1:22
Speaker 2: the accident. I mean, how was your day in general?
1:26
Speaker 1: Okay, it was Friday, March 14th. I already had plans
1:33
Speaker 1: with my friends from that time. I would hang out
1:36
Speaker 1: with them a lot, a lot. When I was 17,
1:40
Speaker 1: I joined a DJ group with dancers to liven up
1:48
Speaker 1: 15th birthday parties, baptisms, and first communions. It was very
1:53
Speaker 1: rare for them to attend weddings, but sometimes there were weddings.
1:57
Speaker 1: And I got along a lot with that group. In fact,
1:59
Speaker 1: I distanced myself a lot from my high school and
2:02
Speaker 1: college friends, and I would almost always hang out with them, right?
2:06
Speaker 1: So this was the group I hung out with, and
2:09
Speaker 1: we already had plans to celebrate my birthday. That day,
2:14
Speaker 1: we had decided to go to the hip-hop room of
2:18
Speaker 1: the Americas to hang out, though. I didn't like gambling,
2:24
Speaker 1: so it was more like going out to have a beer,
2:27
Speaker 1: going to watch the race. having a good time and
2:32
Speaker 1: going to a friend's house to have a party. And
2:36
Speaker 1: then everyone went home. So there we saw first, we
2:40
Speaker 1: went to the Americas racetrack where we stayed until around
2:45
Speaker 1: 5 or 6 in the afternoon. And from there, we
2:49
Speaker 1: went to my friend's house, who I already told you about,
2:51
Speaker 1: behind the Angeles de Pedregal. That's where he lived. We
2:57
Speaker 1: Spent some time there, drinking. Well, honestly, that day I
3:02
Speaker 1: hadn't had any drinks because I was driving. So I
3:05
Speaker 1: knew I shouldn't have to drink so much to be
3:07
Speaker 1: able to drive home safely. My dad called me and
3:12
Speaker 1: asked me how I was doing. If everything was okay.
3:15
Speaker 1: I had told him everything was fine. He heard me
3:17
Speaker 1: say I was fine. And around five in the morning,
3:21
Speaker 1: everyone went home. I took one of my best friends.
3:27
Speaker 1: to his car there in Perebre Galis, one near the
3:31
Speaker 1: house where we were. I already took the road to
3:34
Speaker 1: the house of another of my best friends who I
3:38
Speaker 1: always gave rides to after these events that we had.
3:43
Speaker 3: You have memories or have you erased that day and
3:46
Speaker 3: what you're telling us is what they told you?
3:48
Speaker 1: No, I have memories. I do remember the racetrack. Not
3:51
Speaker 1: all of it, obvious. Because quite a while, nine years.
3:56
Speaker 1: From when we arrived at my friend's house in about
3:58
Speaker 1: an hour later, and that was it. Nah. There I
4:01
Speaker 1: took one of my best friends to his house, who
4:03
Speaker 1: lived 10 minutes, 5 minutes from where I lived with
4:07
Speaker 1: my mom, Biko. And on the way to drop him off,
4:11
Speaker 1: I was going at an excessively high speed, a quasi-cycle. There.
4:17
Speaker 1: Peripheral on the lower part, not on the second floor,
4:22
Speaker 1: but on the lower part, on the lower part.
4:24
Speaker 3: How high on peripheral?
4:26
Speaker 1: At the height of the flowers, the flowers and peripheral.
4:29
Speaker 1: There on the curve, the curve that goes uphill, then there,
4:37
Speaker 1: was when they told me everything they could deduce from
4:41
Speaker 1: the accident. Okay.
4:45
Speaker 3: So based on what was gathered from traffic incidents or
4:48
Speaker 3: what the person you were with told you, tell us
4:50
Speaker 3: in as much detail as possible how the accident supposedly
4:53
Speaker 3: happened and it happened.
4:55
Speaker 1: Okay. After dropping my friend off at his car in Pedregal,
4:59
Speaker 1: when I had left, each one of us had our
5:03
Speaker 1: own way. He went up top, he went down the
5:05
Speaker 1: second floor. I went down the bottom because I like
5:09
Speaker 1: to get in the car and go as fast as possible.
5:15
Speaker 1: So I was going all the way around. I was
5:18
Speaker 1: with a friend, one of my best friends at that time.
5:22
Speaker 1: I reached 200. I asked my friend to take a
5:24
Speaker 1: picture of the speedometer so I could upload the photo
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Speaker 1: to Twitter and be a speed superhero. I tell him, dude,
5:33
Speaker 1: no way, asshole. We're going 200. Grab it. I was
5:36
Speaker 1: 19 years old. I was stupid. I was dumb. So
5:40
Speaker 1: as soon as he took out his cell phone and
5:41
Speaker 1: was going to take a picture, I lost control. At
5:44
Speaker 1: the height of the flowers, it is said that on
5:47
Speaker 1: the way down to the curve, I flew. by fluke
5:52
Speaker 1: I struck the middle section of the peripheral I spun
5:57
Speaker 1: I hit the side of the peripheral I spun again
6:00
Speaker 1: I hit the middle once more I spun I collided
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Speaker 1: with the side and then I did who knows how
6:06
Speaker 1: many turns over in the vehicle and in that crash
6:10
Speaker 1: section Between turns, I hit the part of the seatbelt
6:15
Speaker 1: in the thick part of the car, of the seatbelt, sorry.
6:20
Speaker 1: I hit my skull here. In fact, I have the
6:24
Speaker 1: scar here. I completely lost consciousness, right? My friend is fine.
6:30
Speaker 1: Nothing happened to him, thank God. But when he went
6:33
Speaker 1: to take a shower, all this trouble, his nose did
6:36
Speaker 1: bleed and glass obviously flew out of the car. My
6:42
Speaker 1: best friend told me at that moment that he didn't
6:46
Speaker 1: remember the password. Suddenly he did remember. Unlocked his cell phone.
6:50
Speaker 1: Called my best friend who had left him, who was
6:52
Speaker 1: almost home. Called him and said, we had an accident there. Good.
6:58
Speaker 1: He was already on the viaduct, the ring road, and
7:00
Speaker 1: the viaduct, and he arrived in five minutes. In fact,
7:03
Speaker 1: the police officer stopped him and said, no, it's just
7:05
Speaker 1: that my best friend crashed, and this was a real
7:08
Speaker 1: mess there. This car passed by at a normal speed,
7:13
Speaker 1: and could it be, I think, about a kilometer away?
7:19
Speaker 1: I see a police officer, and she stops and says
7:22
Speaker 1: to the police officer, there was an accident back there.
7:25
Speaker 1: The police office turned around and drove in the opposite
7:28
Speaker 1: direction and got to the accident. Then the ambulance arrived,
7:33
Speaker 1: the firefighters arrived, and my car was lying on its side.
7:38
Speaker 1: The car was like this, and it was lying on
7:40
Speaker 1: its side, and the firefighters had to break the windshield,
7:48
Speaker 1: you know, and they got me out that way. They
7:50
Speaker 1: said that with the seatbelt I would have slit my throat,
7:53
Speaker 1: so because I wasn't wearing a seatbelt, I saved my life. But, well,
7:57
Speaker 1: that will never be known. It will be a mystery
8:00
Speaker 1: that we won't know. And that's where the answer is.
8:04
Speaker 1: The ambulance told my best friend, who had returned where
8:06
Speaker 1: they were taking me to the Jogo Hospital. And my
8:09
Speaker 1: best friend said, quote, quote, quote, no, to the Angeles
8:13
Speaker 1: de Pedregal hospital. And the ambulance guy replied, but he
8:16
Speaker 1: has medical insurance. He said, okay, take him. It's the closest.
8:21
Speaker 1: Take him there. At that moment, my best friend calls
8:24
Speaker 1: my mom. Well, she calls my house. She calls my
8:29
Speaker 1: house at that time. And my sister answers, who had
8:32
Speaker 1: just arrived from another party, who had left the hippodrome
8:34
Speaker 1: for another party. She spent time there with me. But anyway,
8:40
Speaker 1: she went to another party and was just arriving home.
8:43
Speaker 1: And my mom said, We're lying down talking games. And
8:48
Speaker 1: then the phone rings and my sister answers and they
8:50
Speaker 1: tell her, Diego just had an accident. He's very serious, right?
8:56
Speaker 1: We're on our way to the hospital. We were in
8:58
Speaker 1: that time, obviously, my mom calls my dad. My sister
9:02
Speaker 1: and my mom are absolutely devastated at this because it
9:04
Speaker 1: was also my birthday. They call my dad. My dad
9:06
Speaker 1: finds out and almost has a heart attack. My dad
9:09
Speaker 1: finds out and almost has a heart attack. Okay, but
9:12
Speaker 1: he got there at the hospital. And then my sister
9:15
Speaker 1: grabbed the car. My dad didn't have a car because
9:16
Speaker 1: the accident was in his car. They ate mine because
9:20
Speaker 1: the accident was in his car. So, well, while he
9:24
Speaker 1: called the taxi, he woke up, grabbed the taxi. He came.
9:29
Speaker 1: He went there. My dad arrived at the hospital. And
9:32
Speaker 1: when he found out that everything he had, all the
9:35
Speaker 1: medical reports that the doctors gave him, he had a
9:41
Speaker 1: heart attack. Well, he almost had a heart attack. He
9:43
Speaker 1: almost had a heart attack in which obviously another dog
9:46
Speaker 1: also arrived to take care of him so that he
9:48
Speaker 1: wouldn't have a heart attack, right? It was important for
9:50
Speaker 1: him to be at 100% at that moment so he
9:53
Speaker 1: could handle all the paperwork for the accident and the
9:56
Speaker 1: hospital as well as deal with any other situation. that
10:00
Speaker 1: might arise at that particular time. The accident happened at 5.15,
10:05
Speaker 1: around 5.15, 5.10, 5.15 and 5.30. I was already at
10:11
Speaker 1: the hospital in Angeles de Pedregal in the emergency room
10:14
Speaker 1: and The truth is, it was very fast. As soon
10:17
Speaker 1: as I arrived, obviously, they took me, they cut me.
10:20
Speaker 1: It was a polo shirt that my dad had given
10:23
Speaker 1: me for my birthday. This one, which I had always
10:26
Speaker 1: wanted until now. It saddens me to know that they
10:31
Speaker 1: cut it off. Well, they had to cut it off because, obviously,
10:35
Speaker 1: when I fastened myself with the belt, with the thick
10:38
Speaker 1: part of the belt, I fractured my skull. So my
10:43
Speaker 1: entire skull fractured and I lost this entire part of
10:47
Speaker 1: the front of my skull, right? So they cut my
10:52
Speaker 1: shot off and there, well, everything that had to happen
10:55
Speaker 1: there in the hospital happened, right?
11:00
Speaker 2: And well, let's see from what they've told you, when
11:02
Speaker 2: did your family arrive? When did you get to the hospital?
11:06
Speaker 2: And beyond the intracranial fracture, what other surgeries did you
11:09
Speaker 2: have that day? How many surgeries did you have that day?
11:12
Speaker 2: How did other people find out? If you know anything
11:16
Speaker 2: about this, tell us what they've told you.
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Speaker 1: Of course, while they were taking care of me and
11:21
Speaker 1: all that, my best friends also got to the hospital.
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Speaker 1: They were there, outside the emergency room, waiting to see
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Speaker 1: what was happening. And while it was 7 in the morning,
11:32
Speaker 1: an hour and a half passed, in which my parents
11:35
Speaker 1: obviously notified. all my relatives that I had had an accident,
11:39
Speaker 1: that it was serious, and that I could die. My
11:45
Speaker 1: uncle was sorting out the MP issue with the police
11:50
Speaker 1: and my car. When my uncle saw the car, he
11:53
Speaker 1: was very shocked. Because he saw hair all over the seat.
11:59
Speaker 1: He saw a lot of blood. When he found out
12:05
Speaker 1: that it was his nephew, his nephew's blood was all
12:09
Speaker 1: over the car, right? Half of the car was completely gone.
12:14
Speaker 1: Because obviously, a crash accident, a collision at two and
12:18
Speaker 1: a half years old was obviously a total loss of
12:21
Speaker 1: the car. And half of the car was left intact.
12:25
Speaker 1: And while I was in surgery, I had an operation.
12:29
Speaker 1: I think it was the longest operation according to what
12:33
Speaker 1: they tell me. It lasted a whole day. They had
12:36
Speaker 1: to cut off this whole part of my skull all
12:39
Speaker 1: the way to here in order to remove it. They
12:42
Speaker 1: didn't die because obviously my brain swelled up to such
12:45
Speaker 1: an extent that if it touched my skull, even... One filmmaker,
12:51
Speaker 1: I would have died right there and then. I didn't
12:54
Speaker 1: have to spend about four or five months without this
12:57
Speaker 1: skull for my brain to deflate. So, while I was
13:04
Speaker 1: in the hospital during these months and a half that
13:06
Speaker 1: I was there, well, I still didn't have this skull
13:10
Speaker 1: cap that I have today. And the part of my
13:14
Speaker 1: brain that was sunken looked like an L, right? So
13:17
Speaker 1: I had an L here where There was a possibility
13:22
Speaker 1: that anything could touch my brain, and I could, and
13:25
Speaker 1: all the duck dead, right? Little by little, the operations
13:30
Speaker 1: that they performed on me were Rao Zhen, which in
13:33
Speaker 1: total were about 15 or 16 operations in less than
13:35
Speaker 1: a month, Ali. This one in which I had a
13:39
Speaker 1: fractured skull, as I said, a broken nose, a fractured jaw.
13:44
Speaker 1: I broke my arm in three places, my left arm
13:47
Speaker 1: here in three places. I broke my clavicle. Thank God
13:51
Speaker 1: nothing happened to my legs. The doctors obviously saw that
13:57
Speaker 1: I had all those fractured parts. While they were waiting
14:00
Speaker 1: for me to operate on them, what was the next
14:02
Speaker 1: operation I had? They had to intubate me in order
14:05
Speaker 1: to induce a coma so that my brain would deflate
14:08
Speaker 1: as quickly as possible and have as little activity as
14:10
Speaker 1: possible so that my brain would stop working. So that
14:13
Speaker 1: I could That was the goal of the doctors and everyone,
14:21
Speaker 1: that I would come back to life as quickly as possible, right?
14:25
Speaker 1: They induced me into a coma for about 28 days.
14:27
Speaker 1: I was unconscious for 32, 33 days. I was in
14:33
Speaker 1: intensive care. That's a period of 34 days. Then they
14:37
Speaker 1: took me to intermediate. They continued to operate on me
14:41
Speaker 1: while I was in a coma, while I was unconscious.
14:44
Speaker 1: I had operations every day.
14:46
Speaker 2: In all hospitals that are visiting regulations, clearly you weren't
14:50
Speaker 2: aware of it, but people would come to see you.
14:52
Speaker 2: And what happened when they came to see you?
14:55
Speaker 1: Yes, well, when my parents notified everyone, family, friends, and
15:01
Speaker 1: even my ex-girlfriend came to the hospital. The hospital asked
15:05
Speaker 1: for 11 blood donors. I mean, blood wasn't an impediment
15:09
Speaker 1: to the operation, but they did ask a lot for
15:12
Speaker 1: the blood. was being used for me to be returned, right? Right, right.
15:19
Speaker 1: So I was fortunate that in half an hour, those
15:23
Speaker 1: 11 people, and they told me there were even 15 people,
15:28
Speaker 1: the center was full of blood, so they could donate
15:31
Speaker 1: to me, right, right? When I was in a coma, in...
15:35
Speaker 1: In intensive care, there were rules about visiting hours, obviously,
15:39
Speaker 1: so that family and friends could come into the hospital.
15:43
Speaker 1: But obviously, there were restrictions, right? The issue of hours
15:49
Speaker 1: and the issue of talking to me and even touching me,
15:51
Speaker 1: because if someone talked to me, I heard a sound,
15:54
Speaker 1: or someone talked to me, there was a possibility that
15:59
Speaker 1: my brain would return And obviously become stressed and inflamed
16:04
Speaker 1: again so that it wouldn't function. And obviously there was
16:06
Speaker 1: the risk of dying at that moment. That was always
16:13
Speaker 1: the medical report from the neurosurgeon who was the head
16:17
Speaker 1: of all the doctors who operated on me. He was
16:21
Speaker 1: the head who gave the medical report to my parents, right? Yeah.
16:25
Speaker 3: I mean, back then, not even your parents could touch
16:27
Speaker 3: you or talk to you when they came to see you.
16:30
Speaker 1: No, no one. My parents, no one could try to
16:34
Speaker 1: shout at me or talk to me or anything because
16:37
Speaker 1: there was a huge risk that I could die right now.
16:42
Speaker 1: The doctors who saw my parents always told them, Diego
16:46
Speaker 1: has the best technology in Mexico. He can live. He
16:48
Speaker 1: can die right now. But it all depends on him.
16:53
Speaker 1: But it all depends on him. When I was in
16:54
Speaker 1: a coma, it is rumored or said that One sees
16:58
Speaker 1: the light. You could say that day I died because
17:02
Speaker 1: I died for a while. I died. I died. Yes,
17:05
Speaker 1: I saw the light. I saw my maternal grandfather. I
17:10
Speaker 1: remember perfectly. He told me, no, it's not time yet.
17:14
Speaker 1: Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. And I was running.
17:16
Speaker 1: I wanted to hug him. I wanted everything. He was
17:19
Speaker 1: telling me, no, calm down. I had three options to die. No,
17:22
Speaker 1: to remain in a vegetative state, to wake up and
17:25
Speaker 1: to die the second time. So I decided to live.
17:29
Speaker 1: It was one of the last days that I think
17:31
Speaker 1: I was in a coma because from then on I
17:33
Speaker 1: don't remember anything about the coma.
17:36
Speaker 3: Hey Diego, what's it like to be in a coma?
17:39
Speaker 1: The feeling is like you're asleep. I knew I was
17:44
Speaker 1: in the hospital. My dreams knew they were in the hospital.
17:49
Speaker 1: I dreamed that my best friends at that time, male
17:53
Speaker 1: and female friends, were all walking in a group and
17:56
Speaker 1: looking at me and talking to me. I had a
17:59
Speaker 1: huge window where I looked to the left and saw
18:02
Speaker 1: the sun's rays. I dreamed about my cousin. I dreamed
18:08
Speaker 1: that he lay down there in my bed and started
18:13
Speaker 1: rubbing my head and talking to me and saying, Nice things, obviously.
18:17
Speaker 1: By then, the doctors had already told my parents and
18:21
Speaker 1: my relatives, I think, that they could talk to me
18:25
Speaker 1: so that I would wake up from the coma. You see,
18:28
Speaker 1: they had already done it. After some time, my brain
18:31
Speaker 1: had already reduced its... And I had to wake up
18:35
Speaker 1: because the time was finally reaching its limit, wasn't it?
18:40
Speaker 1: So my mom would play me music and tell me
18:45
Speaker 1: the day and time so I could locate myself when
18:47
Speaker 1: I woke up. You remember them telling you that on
18:51
Speaker 1: that day and time? Yes, I remember perfectly.
18:55
Speaker 4: Obviously, I don't remember the dates yet. Exactly, but I
18:58
Speaker 4: do remember the dates of the song or it was
19:02
Speaker 4: David Guetta's Titanium. But in piano version, piano with cello,
19:06
Speaker 4: piano with... It was a very beautiful song. She would
19:09
Speaker 4: always play that one for me and tell me the
19:11
Speaker 4: day and time it was.
19:13
Speaker 3: There a risk that you wouldn't wake up?
19:16
Speaker 1: There was always a risk that I wouldn't wake up.
19:19
Speaker 1: Even when I was awake, I think there was a
19:21
Speaker 1: risk of anything because obviously since I didn't have this
19:25
Speaker 1: part as normal, you could say that. If I touch myself,
19:29
Speaker 1: that I could touch my brain, right, right? So any situation,
19:33
Speaker 1: anything that happened, I could die.
19:37
Speaker 2: And tell us when you woke up, do you remember?
19:39
Speaker 2: Anything or rather, did you? Did they tell you?
19:41
Speaker 1: Did they tell you? Okay. When I woke up, if
19:44
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, it was night time it was already
19:49
Speaker 1: night time and they were taking me to my room
19:51
Speaker 1: to my intimate therapy room that's what i remember and
19:54
Speaker 1: i went back to sleep right you know after about
19:58
Speaker 1: how long or maybe until the next day i woke
20:01
Speaker 1: up i saw my parents and i knew i had
20:05
Speaker 1: had an accident Because when I saw my parents, the
20:09
Speaker 1: three of us looked each other in the eye and
20:11
Speaker 1: I touched my forehead. And then my parents told me, yes, son,
20:16
Speaker 1: you had an accident and you're in serious condition. Well,
20:19
Speaker 1: they told me everything that happened to me. And that's
20:23
Speaker 1: when I started to get back to my normal life,
20:26
Speaker 1: the normal life that you live in a hospital, right? No.
20:31
Speaker 2: Tell us what it was like from the time you
20:32
Speaker 2: woke up from the coma until you left the hospital.
20:35
Speaker 1: Okay. Well, When I woke up from the coma, I
20:40
Speaker 1: spent about three weeks where I couldn't do anything. They
20:48
Speaker 1: barely gave me therapy. I learned to walk. I learned
20:52
Speaker 1: to walk again because I had lost obviously all mobility
20:56
Speaker 1: in my legs and arms. So they took me to
21:01
Speaker 1: physical therapy. I would go to the physical therapy center
21:05
Speaker 1: and the physical therapist would do physical therapy with me
21:09
Speaker 1: in my room because it was risky to take me
21:13
Speaker 1: to the rehabilitation so often. The doctors also told my
21:19
Speaker 1: family to help me so that I wouldn't have any
21:24
Speaker 1: after effects from not being able to speak or read.
21:29
Speaker 1: The physical therapist, when I was already, you could say,
21:34
Speaker 1: 80% better, they asked me to go out and walk
21:39
Speaker 1: in the hallway so they could teach me how to
21:42
Speaker 1: walk again, step by step, and my brain would start
21:45
Speaker 1: working and not remain static. And I would function at 100%, right,
21:51
Speaker 1: like I am today, like I do. Okay.
21:58
Speaker 3: I mean, you had 15 or 16 operations. And what
22:01
Speaker 3: were those operations?
22:03
Speaker 2: Okay.
22:04
Speaker 1: Well, I can't tell you how many operations I had,
22:07
Speaker 1: but they put plates there, two plates here in my forearm.
22:14
Speaker 1: This sorts the mock like that, obviously, so that the
22:19
Speaker 1: bones would fuse. Here, I had a problem where I
22:24
Speaker 1: lost mobility in my wrist and fingers and mouth. We
22:26
Speaker 1: have a nerve called the right nerreza, which gives us
22:30
Speaker 1: all the movement of the wrist and fingers. And this nerve, akatreza,
22:35
Speaker 1: sanashe kopahakt, so I had it here, nerre. There was
22:39
Speaker 1: a risk that I would lose it. It depended a
22:41
Speaker 1: lot on the operation and on them seeing how that
22:45
Speaker 1: nerve was in order to return it to its normal state,
22:49
Speaker 1: to its place. They operated on my clavicle two or
22:52
Speaker 1: three times. Here I have a hook that lowers my clavicle.
22:59
Speaker 1: I will always have this one. They put a pin
23:02
Speaker 1: from my shoulder to my elbow. They already removed that one.
23:05
Speaker 1: They already removed all this part of the plates, the
23:07
Speaker 1: pins and screws. Yes? My clavicle will always have a
23:12
Speaker 1: hook there because it is broken, right? That one could
23:16
Speaker 1: not be fixed. It was known from the beginning that
23:19
Speaker 1: it was not going to be fixed. So they put
23:21
Speaker 1: a hook there because it is going to be fractured
23:24
Speaker 1: for the rest of my life. It is my clavicle, right?
23:27
Speaker 1: What was the hardest, most difficult, or important surgery, apart
23:30
Speaker 1: from the one on the skull? The most important one
23:34
Speaker 1: is the radial nerve, which I already mentioned. Dang it.
23:39
Speaker 1: And obviously, I think one of the most important was
23:42
Speaker 1: when they put my skull cap on. It is a
23:44
Speaker 1: resin that was placed on me, put here in my
23:47
Speaker 1: skull so that I would return to my normal shape. Because, well,
23:51
Speaker 1: this part of my skull was sunken, right? What other
23:55
Speaker 1: surgeries did they do on your face? I have, to
23:58
Speaker 1: this day, I have a plate here in my jaw.
24:03
Speaker 1: They had to close my mouth with a type of braces,
24:05
Speaker 1: you could say, in which I couldn't, in which I
24:08
Speaker 1: couldn't eat so that my jaw would return to its
24:11
Speaker 1: normal shape because obviously I had it all hanging. And
24:14
Speaker 1: while I intravenously, intravenously, right? Then there was a bag,
24:20
Speaker 1: a black bag in which they injected me with all
24:23
Speaker 1: the food there was. So that I could feed myself
24:26
Speaker 1: through it. They readjusted my nose guard. But the thing
24:30
Speaker 1: is that it is misaligned again right now. They put
24:33
Speaker 1: it in place. But they didn't put it in place.
24:35
Speaker 1: And that was it.
24:36
Speaker 3: Well.
24:37
Speaker 1: That's all the surgeries. That did to me. This. All
24:42
Speaker 1: that is repeated twice. And well the most painful one. Yes.
24:47
Speaker 1: I have to tell you. The most painful after so
24:49
Speaker 1: many surgeries. Was when they closed. This scar that I have.
24:55
Speaker 1: from the breathing tube. My body no longer responded to
25:00
Speaker 1: the anesthesia, so they had to close the scar without anesthesia.
25:06
Speaker 1: You could hear the click, and I could feel the
25:09
Speaker 1: needle going through, right? So it was one of the
25:11
Speaker 1: most painful things I've ever experienced in my life. And well,
25:16
Speaker 1: after all these operations I had, once they told me
25:22
Speaker 1: I could eat They took off my braces, all this stuff.
25:27
Speaker 1: These things I had here in my teeth, I could eat, sir.
25:33
Speaker 1: When I ate gelatin, I felt a burning sensation in
25:36
Speaker 1: my esophagus, and the doctors realized that the respiration I
25:42
Speaker 1: had here with the tube burned my esophagus, right? Today
25:47
Speaker 1: you have physical aftereffects from that accident? Right. On this side,
25:52
Speaker 1: like your arm and back and even your sakara karara,
25:56
Speaker 1: the feeling is much less than on this side, on
26:00
Speaker 1: my right side, right at the thigh. I could tear
26:03
Speaker 1: my skin off here and not feel a thing.
26:05
Speaker 2: What did you feel when you left the hospital, Diego?
26:08
Speaker 1: That day, right? I think it was one of the
26:10
Speaker 1: best days of my life. I felt like I was
26:13
Speaker 1: getting back to my normal life, which was a party act.
26:19
Speaker 1: It was a joy for me to be able to
26:21
Speaker 1: walk outside. Yes, it was a very long process when
26:28
Speaker 1: I got out of the hospital. It was a year-long process.
26:34
Speaker 1: From Monday to Saturday, I went to rehab. Obviously, regain
26:39
Speaker 1: mobility in my left arm, right? During that year, I
26:44
Speaker 1: had to go back to the hospital. They operated on
26:47
Speaker 1: my nose again. They put in the plastic cap, which
26:50
Speaker 1: I have today, and they re-samovled the pins, screws, and plates, bar, sauna.
26:59
Speaker 1: So of those 15 or 16, we added more raw.
27:03
Speaker 1: So there were around 20 operations, or I think even
27:07
Speaker 1: more operations that I had in the entire span of
27:11
Speaker 1: a year, right?
27:13
Speaker 2: Tell me what lessons did you take away from having
27:15
Speaker 2: been so close to death?
27:17
Speaker 1: It may sound complicated, A little strange. But the way
27:26
Speaker 1: I see life is that you always have to give
27:29
Speaker 1: to the fullest today in everything you do. Because tomorrow
27:33
Speaker 1: you don't know what could happen. You don't know what
27:36
Speaker 1: could happen in five minutes. I'm going home from here
27:39
Speaker 1: and we don't know what will happen from here to
27:40
Speaker 1: my house. No matter how close it is or even
27:42
Speaker 1: if we are. Neighbors. I could have a heart attack
27:46
Speaker 1: at that moment. So you always have to live life
27:48
Speaker 1: to the fullest. You always have to live it giving
27:51
Speaker 1: it your all. No matter what they say about you.
27:54
Speaker 1: I'm a person who lives in the moment. Who lives
27:57
Speaker 1: for the day. And I don't care what they say
28:02
Speaker 1: about me. Hey, are you still friends with the person
28:05
Speaker 1: you were with in the car? Or the person who
28:07
Speaker 1: caught up with you when you crashed? No. No. It
28:12
Speaker 1: tickled that I got me right when I got out
28:13
Speaker 1: of the hospital at what could it be after three
28:18
Speaker 1: months are Going out with them when the accident happened.
28:23
Speaker 1: I was going out with I had I had a
28:26
Speaker 1: girlfriend in a little group and Well overnight descended with
28:31
Speaker 1: me because my my mom told me that they thought
28:35
Speaker 1: I was going to stay Stupid and that they could
28:39
Speaker 1: get stuck in a certain way you could say It
28:42
Speaker 1: was bad luck, which I don't think is bad luck.
28:44
Speaker 1: There are some facts of life in which I had
28:46
Speaker 1: a life before and I have a life after the accident, right?
28:51
Speaker 1: So they completely distanced themselves from me. This is when
28:57
Speaker 1: I left the hospital, right? And, well, I feel that
29:00
Speaker 1: the accident happened because a year before I became addicted
29:05
Speaker 1: to cocaine, daily I did drugs. I did about five
29:09
Speaker 1: lines a day. I... was very involved with drugs, I
29:12
Speaker 1: became a dealer, I distributed drugs, I earned good money,
29:16
Speaker 1: and I was addicted to cocaine for a year, and
29:20
Speaker 1: it is something that my parents never instilled in me.
29:23
Speaker 1: I told my mom, mom, I'm using drugs, I'm gonna stop,
29:26
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, because it's already happened, and now with
29:29
Speaker 1: my willpower, I'm gonna stop. My dad didn't know. In
29:36
Speaker 1: December 2013, I wanted to put the brakes on my life,
29:39
Speaker 1: on that life that I never wanted to be in,
29:42
Speaker 1: and I got caught up in it. And then three
29:45
Speaker 1: months later, the accident happened. The accident happened. I feel
29:50
Speaker 1: like there wasn't that opportunity to put the brakes on
29:53
Speaker 1: until my birthday. Today, I feel like that accident was
29:57
Speaker 1: like a wake-up call from life for me too. Leave
29:59
Speaker 1: that life behind. I put the brakes on to throw
30:04
Speaker 1: everything to hell to go back to that life that
30:06
Speaker 1: my parents always instilled in me and to live what
30:10
Speaker 1: I'm living today.
30:12
Speaker 3: Not about to be a dad, Diego. Does the education
30:16
Speaker 3: you want to give your son have anything to do
30:18
Speaker 3: with your experience in the accident?
30:21
Speaker 1: No, not at all. My idea is for him to
30:25
Speaker 1: live the way he wants to live, always with the
30:27
Speaker 1: support of his mother and mine. The red flags that
30:31
Speaker 1: someone has when they take drugs. So now I know
30:36
Speaker 1: where to guide him, but let him live the best
30:40
Speaker 1: he can, right? Cool. And let him live the best
30:43
Speaker 1: he can. Who wants to live? I will always give
30:47
Speaker 1: him freedom. Obviously, I spoke to his mother first, but
30:50
Speaker 1: I will always give him the freedom to do whatever
30:52
Speaker 1: he wants and knowing that he will always have our support, right? Right?
30:58
Speaker 2: What do you want to leave people with this interview?
31:01
Speaker 1: The neurosurgeon told my mother that out of a million,
31:07
Speaker 1: there is only one who survives, and that one was me.
31:11
Speaker 1: And that one makes me a miracle. And, well, telling
31:15
Speaker 1: people accidents happen. That one thing, Superman. And then nothing
31:21
Speaker 1: is going to happen to him. But when one gets
31:25
Speaker 1: in a car at certain hours and sees the road
31:29
Speaker 1: clear and steps on it, believing that nothing is going
31:32
Speaker 1: to happen to him, it does happen. And most of
31:35
Speaker 1: the time, they don't tell you. I am Diego Diaz Mercado.
31:40
Speaker 1: Nine years ago, I had an accident in which they
31:41
Speaker 1: had to cut my skull open on the verge of death. Today,
31:46
Speaker 1: I have a master's degree. I have a bachelor's degree.
31:49
Speaker 1: I am married with a stable job. And in a
31:52
Speaker 1: few days, I am going to be a father.