Nerea Pérez de las Heras: 'Las discapacitadas no peleamos con la silla de ruedas sino con las escaleras y la burocracia'

In the summer of 2023, Spanish journalist and comedian Nerea Pérez de las Heras suffered a maritime accident in which a boat's propeller severed part of her right leg. She recounts this life-changing event in her new book 'Fantasma', published by Alfaguara. The book serves as a defense of public healthcare and a critique of the barriers faced by people with disabilities, including inaccessible urban environments and bureaucratic hurdles. Pérez de las Heras emphasizes that private healthcare is not merely a paid version of public healthcare, asserting that rights should not be conflated with business. After extensive hospital stays, surgeries, rehabilitation, and bureaucratic procedures, supported by her family, partner, and friends, she now walks again. The book is an editorial preview excerpted by eldiario.es, where she discusses the accident and its aftermath.