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“And so, well, what’s that doing here? And then, realised it wasn’t our van. I carried on about my business.”
A short time later, there was a knock at the door.
“And as I opened the front door, I instantly received a pint of sulphuric acid to the face whilst my attacker said, ‘This is for you, mate,’ and ran.”
Andreas was the victim of an acid attack
Realizing what had happened to him, Andreas called for his then-wife, Pia, and told her to call an ambulance.
“I ran through the house, got to the kitchen, took off what clothes I could, and started dousing myself with as much water as I could in the kitchen sink.”
After emergency responders arrived, Andreas later blacked out in his driveway. He didn’t wake up until six days later in intensive care.
But while Andreas faced years of surgeries and rehabilitation, one fear weighed heavily on his mind during his initial hospital stay. He was separated from his 18-month-old son, Theo, for months while he recovered, and was worried about how their reunion would unfold.
“We made a decision that Theo, my eldest, wasn’t to come to hospital. He didn’t need to. He needed love, food, support, toys. He didn’t need to see the horror that was going on,” Andreas said, according to Tyla.
“My biggest fear lying in a hospital bed was, ‘Will he recognise me? How will he react to me?’
“And I hadn’t seen him for the best part of four months, which was soul-destroying.”
“He didn’t let go of me for a very long time”
After spending days in intensive care and beginning a long recovery process, Andreas was finally reunited with his son.
The moment, however, didn’t go quite as he had hoped.
“That was so tough, but I knew he had what he needed. I knew he was gonna be okay,” he said.