All of Spain is moved by the Nadia case, that of an 11-year-old girl (allegedly) affected with trichotiodystrophy, a rare disease for which there is no cure that causes premature aging. But the commotion is no longer focused on the girl's illness and the solidarity wave that caused her (apparent) tragic illness, but on the alleged scam that the girl's father would have committed, and possibly also the mother, to lie exaggerating the situation of her daughter with what she managed to raise more than 300,000 thousand euros.
A few days ago we told you the truths and more than possible lies of the case. Now we will give you an account of how this scam was brewing to the solidarity of which the whole country speaks.
Chronology of a case in which all are doubts
In the year 2000, five years before the birth of Nadia, her father, Fernando Blanco, he was sentenced in Palma de Mallorca to four years and ten months in prison for cheating about $ 125,000 to the company where he worked then.
The girl was born in 2005 prematurely and remained in hospital for two months. He diagnosis of trichotiodystrophy came a year later. The main symptom of trichotiodystrophy is the fragility of the hair, together with some stunted growth and an intellectual deficit, nail abnormalities and photosensitivity.
Affected patients do not have the normal mechanisms to repair the DNA affected by ultraviolet light. The progressive accumulation of mutations in DNA would be what causes premature aging, although research has not yet determined the life expectancy of affected patients.
Eight years of alleged deception
When Nadia was three years old, the first solidarity campaigns began. According to El Periódico, the parents begin to raise funds first with a traveling shop of costume jewelery and used objects in the plaza of the Majorcan town of Binissalem, a Balearic municipality near Biniali.
In 2008, Miquel A. Lladó, coach of the population's tennis club, knows the story of the girl and believes in her. He gets involved and offers to organize a solidarity tournament with which they directly raised the price of the inscriptions, according to the coach.
From that year and during the year 2009 the case begins to appear in national newspapers, television programs of maximum audience and the case also begins to sound on social networks.
The following year, in 2010, he obtained that the tennis player, the motorcycling champion Jorge Lorenzo and the footballer Miguel Ángel Moyà ceded objects to auction them to raise funds for the girl, as published by El Periódico.
More and more repercussion
In 2011, the NadiaNerea.org website (currently disabled) and the Facebook profile of the Nadia Nerea Association for Trichotidistrophy are created and used to publicize the history of Nadia and fundraising through charitable acts, SMS messages, sale of Lottery numbers, etc ...
In the following years, the family took care of walk with the girl television sets of programs of maximum audience (Public Mirror of Antena 3, The Ana Rosa de Telecinco Program, La Sexta); as well as offer interviews in numerous media. Meanwhile they were performed solidarity calendars and events of all kinds to raise money, some along with famous people from television that gave greater visibility to the case.
The thunder box opens
On November 26, 2016, an article is published in El Mundo. After that a collection was made in which they were achieved 153 thousand euros in just four days for an alleged operation in Houston (United States).
And from there the thunder box was uncovered. Some journalists began to suspect the veracity of the story, to see loose fringes and began to investigate.
On November 30, journalist Ángela Bernardo publishes an article in Hypertextual in which the plot of deception of Nadia's story is dismantled point by point. False operations, doctors and non-existent specialists, trips that were never made and even questioning the terminal condition of the girl. Everything indicated that Nadia's disease had been exaggerated to convince and get money.
On December 4, the father announces on the Facebook profile of the Association that We will proceed to return all the money raised and summons a press conference for two days after it never took place.
Parental Detention
The next day a judicial investigation is opened and the family's accounts are frozen to avoid movements.
On Wednesday, December 7, the parents were arrested by the Police of Catalonia accused of scam in donations and waiting to go to court. The judge also requested the child's medical information and ordered her passport removed.
The parents declare today as investigated and could face possible civil actions that affect the custody of the child. These measures could affect the guardianship of the child, as well as issues such as child support, education, place of residence and communication with the girl.
We do not know how far the deception reaches, if the girl is really sick as the parents say or how the story will end. What we do know is that the alleged scam has moved an entire country that had turned to help a family that apparently suffered.
