“We feel abandoned”. This is what Diego Agudo, the brother of the 24-year-old Valencian woman in a coma in Thailand after suffering a serious motorcycle accident, expressed this Monday to ABC, after learning that the government would not charter any medical plane to bring him. support the young woman, a decision that the Minister of Defense herself, Margarita Robles, communicated to the mayor of the city where the family resides.
As Diego himself confirmed to this newspaper, it was last Thursday that he received a call from the first mayor of Godelleta, Amparo Pardo, to inform him that the Ministry of Defense had refused Angela the medical plane, since all available planes had been found. “mission” to the Canary Islands.
“As they are not in this situation, they cannot know the feeling of abandonment that we feel at the moment”, criticizes Angela’s brother, who insults Minister Robles with this sentence that she uttered when she authorized the transfer of Spanish citizen Álex García to Bilbao last April: “We will not leave any Spaniard behind.” “He said he would help all Spaniards and with my sister he didn’t fulfillwhile it also sends medical planes to the Canary Islands to help people who are not compatriots”, criticizes Diego.
All this, as revealed by the family member, has already contacted different Andprivate companies that manage repatriations of sick people and they hope that it will be between the end of this week or the beginning of next week that they will be able to bring the young woman back after the doctors have authorized the transfer, even if her condition is still “very serious”.
“The doctors gave the green light after the brain inflammation disappeared, so that he could withstand the pressure of flying,” explains the brother, who confirms that upon his return he will continue his convalescence in the hospital. La Fe de Valence.
Currently, the family is more optimistic about Angela’s positive development and, at the same time, disappointed by the Government’s decision not to send health workers from the Army Aeroevacuation Medical Unit to Air and Space (UMAER), as reported by the newspaper Las Provincias.
Robles’ call
In Mayor Pardo’s interview with Margarita Robles, as confirmed by ABC, the minister assured that her mission is to “manage the taxes of all Spaniards in the most appropriate way possible”, since the medical planes available to Defense “are on mission in the Canary Islands”.
Likewise, according to the municipal version, Robles would have explained to the first mayor that Angela’s situation is not the same as that of the Spaniard repatriated to Bilbao from Thailand, since her family had previously spent 500,000 euros on two medical planes which ultimately failed. “We cannot bring in everyone who asks.”Pardo says the minister told him so.
In this call, the minister acknowledged that she knew that Angela’s family had raised funds, to which the mayor of Godelleta pointed out that approximately 40% of this money would be intended for the payment of taxes. To this nuance, the head of Defense responded that “I hadn’t contacted him to talk about taxes, but about people”, as confirmed by the first mayor, who highlights the detail from Robles that he called her personally.
More than 110,000 euros in taxes
The young woman’s family announced the news and managed in a few hours to raise 301,611 euros thanks to donations to cover medical costs -5,000 euros per day- and the medical plane, even if the first intention was that the Government be that one. He will make the trip possible and will be able to donate the money to a charitable cause.
Now, after ensuring that they will have to pay it, it should be remembered that several candidates will have to be subtracted from the 300,000 euros collected. The first, the commissions from GoFundme, which amount to 15,619 euros, as announced by ABC. In addition, according to calculations by financial experts, the family will have to pay taxes of almost 37% for gift taxan amount which could exceed 112,000 euros.
