Woman Whose Husband Set Her On Fire Talks About Her Nightmare

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

In her first interview after her ex-husband set her on fire five months ago, Heilyn Hernández said that all she wants is to "get her life back" after surviving this terrible case of domestic violence.

In an interview with the CBS affiliate in Miami, the woman who worked at a mattress store in the city of Plantation recalled how her ex-husband, Noel García De Armas, attacked her in front of her place of employment. "She came running fast towards me, so I started the car and tried to back up and get out of there," said Hernandez. "He came to my side, opened the door, and …"

After shaking his head from side to side, he adds, "It was so fast."

Hernández could not escape García De Armas, who soaked her with gasoline and then set her on fire. A person who worked at a nearby emergency center, who witnessed the macabre picture, ran to her aid and told her to drop to the ground and roll to put out the fire.

The woman was transported to the hospital. Today, she says that the only thing she could think about was her little daughter and her mother who were waiting for her at home. "I asked the police to take care of them."

Transported to the Ryder Trauma Center at the University of Miami / Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Cuban woman nearly died several times. Fortunately she resisted. She is now being treated at the Ryder Burn Center, where doctors grafted her skin from her legs to replace the skin on her arms, chest and back that was consumed by the flames.

Despite his odyssey, Hernández does not lose optimism and says he wants to get his life back to do everything he did before. "I have my daughter and I have to be there for her," he says.

Among the charges Garcia de Armas faces are attempted murder. What would you say today? Nothing, Hernández said. "That," he pointed out, "I left in the hands of God."