Laurence Dollimore
A BRITISH paraplegic has had a ‘miracle’ baby with the local Spanish beauty who helped nurse him back to health.
Expat Aaron Salter, 30, was paralysed from the waist down following a horror car crash in Plymouth in 2015, breaking his spine in multiple places.
He immediately froze his sperm on the advice of doctors, never knowing if he would one day be a father.
While his Spanish girlfriend at the time dumped him soon after the accident, it meant local stunner Estrella Garrido, who says she always fancied him, was able to make her move.
After 18 months in hospital, Aaron was able to return to Spain and stayed with his father Les Salter, 72, in the quaint village of Salinas in Valencia.
However he took a turn for the worse and was practically bed-ridden for nine months.
It was then that Estrella, now 36, began managing his care with local doctors and authorities.
“I had always known of her and she was amazing with liaising with the town hall and other authorities on my behalf,” Aaron told Olive Press.
“She started caring for me and our feelings for each other just grew and grew, and here we are.”
He added: “When I woke up in hospital they told me I would never walk again, it was a horrible moment. I told them ‘yeah right’ and tried to get up but I couldn’t.
“But the support from the village in Spain has been so overwhelming, there’s been so much love shown to me.
“I never knew if I was going to be a dad and I wasn’t thinking about it after the crash, but I froze my sperm just in case.
“We did IVF treatment at a clinic in Alicante, it was much cheaper than the UK and it worked the first time thank god, we were so lucky, it was a miracle really because usually it takes more than one round.”
The happy couple welcomed their daughter, also named Estrella, into the world almost exactly a year ago.
Estrella said: “We grew up in the same village and I always had my eye on him, I fancied him before the accident but he had a girlfriend!
“She left him when he had the accident, then when he was needing care in Spain we spent lots of time together and we grew very close.”
The couple decided to have a baby a couple of years ago.
“I’m a few years older than him so I told him ‘hey, my time is running out’. We talked about it and decided to go for it.”
The local village held a street party last month to celebrate the tot’s first birthday.
Granddad Les said: “I was amazed to hear Estrella was pregnant, I was so proud of Aaron, it has made me feel touched.
“He had his life in front of him and we were setting him up with our kennels business and that was all taken away in an instant. To know he has a lovely lady that loves and cares for him, and now a family, that’s lovely for me.”
Les and an eight-year-old Aaron had moved to Spain in 2001 following the death of his wife to cancer.
He set up a kennels business in Sax, near Salinas, and began transporting dogs from Spain to the UK for adoption.
Aaron and two others were delivering pups on his 22nd birthday when they all fell asleep while driving the company van through Plymouth, veering off a motorway and colliding with a tree.
His father explained: “His best friend Miguel was driving and they wanted to imprison him for two years, but Aaron insisted they didn’t and he was given a suspended sentence.”
Aaron is currently locked in a years-long legal battle against the insurance company, with a decision on a multi-million euro payout expected imminently.
He added: ‘Aaron’s been through the ringer. I think the next step will be marriage but Aaron is waiting to see the outcome of the court case.
‘We’re not looking to make money, we just want to make sure that Aaron can afford treatment for the rest of his life.’
