The doctor who already has a couple of face transplants tells the firefighter who flew at 600 m/s that the traumatized tissues have to be filled in so that the face offers greater naturalness, so that people do not look at it and look at it with so much apprehension and impudence. It will be the last, after 18 years. “How many have we already had? 15, 16...?” Doctor Joan Pere Barret and firefighter Rafael Olalla then share a knowing smile.
At dawn on January 12, 2006, firefighter Olalla cordoned off 66 Rambla del Fondo in Santa Coloma de Gramenet. It was a routine service. Olalla was thrown, he flew 25 meters, he spent a month unconscious in the Vall d'Hebron hospital. Two people died. And his helmet saved his life, but it destroyed his face, took away his expression, stole his sight. He was 39 years old. La Vanguardia already reported the first lines of this story at the time.
A pioneering application of adult stem cells, a new nose with tissues from the forehead, an ear and a rib, 69 screws so that nothing breaks down. “Amputations generate empathy,” says Dr. Barret, “but facial disfigurements arouse rejection. The face is our business card, it determines our relationships. “The meaning of this work is to help people get their lives back.”
Yes, the fill operation will be the last in this process. But the definitive one was the previous one, the one that a little over a year ago restored symmetry to Olalla's face, the one that recovered her ability to express her feelings. “Before it was like half my face was sad, and the other half was happy.” The key was to recompose an always embarrassed eyebrow.
They said about the firefighter that he was the first blind person to kitesurf. Many will remember some intervention on TV recounting his adventures in Brazil. Because then people stay calm, imagining that those who suffered terrible misfortunes now lead fantastic lives. Many times stories of personal improvement are bastardized, concentrated in a circus string of sometimes eccentric achievements.
But Olalla's real victories are less striking. He always carries his white cane from here to there, but he loses a lot of them, because for some time now he barely takes it out, because like a good firefighter he is used to moving in the dark. And so he navigates this world with a certain ease, and from time to time he goes out to dance, to see if he meets someone, who is already tired of ephemeral encounters, at City Hall, the Luz de Gas, the Bikini. .. nightclubs where some doormen know him and then help him find a taxi, because there are some very bad people in the city.
And he also coaches a football team of active firefighters who never flew. In any case, when they are winning or losing by three goals, in the last minutes, Olalla acts as a player coach and takes the field. “I also like to go on getaways, to Madrid and Malaga, where I made many friends. It's just that these years I had to sift through a lot of people. With me, love and good vibes. And if not, then nothing... And maybe I'll write another book. 69 screws and blind. Now what? It is in its third edition. It's self-help... Once a girl wrote to me and told me that after reading me she finally dared to go to the beach again. That was very big, really.”
Olalla is also planning a big trip throughout Southeast Asia. He really wants to see Thailand. What happens is that his parents have grown older, and lately he doesn't want to get away from them, he wants to take care of them, listen to their things, walk next to them... Perhaps there is no other clearer sign that this firefighter somehow after his face also rebuilt his life, which is finally leading a normal life. Isn't it the most normal thing in the world to worry about parents who have already grown up? The rest are anecdotes that turn out very well. “I also want to be close to my son, and teach him things…” His son is also a firefighter.
