"I'm still here... I'm fighting": Joanna Paliospirou's first photo after her 10th surgery

Joanna Paliospirou underwent a new surgery and continues to fight to recover after she was attacked with vitriol in May 2020.

The young woman has undergone nine surgeries so far and has now done her tenth.

In fact, after the surgery, she posted a photo on her personal Instagram account from inside the hospital room, writing:

"One day you might be in a beautiful place with dear friends and the next in the icy bed of the operating room. Life is unpredictable ... sometimes unfair. It is important NOT to give up. Still here... I'm fighting it... I thank my doctor and the hospital team for making me feel safe in their arms."

Joanna faithfully follows the instructions of the doctors but a few days ago she wanted to make a short escape before the surgery, traveling to Brussels.

37-year-old Efi Kakarantzoula was sentenced to 15 years in prison in October 2021 for the attempted murder of Joanna Paliospirou with acid in the Athens suburb of Kallithea in May 2020.

At the time, prosecutor Charalambos Mastrantonakis said the attacker executed her criminal plan “in a calculated manner. She had vile motives, murderous egoism and moral pettiness.”

He stressed that the type of acid that Kakarantzoula used and the way she executed her crime “leaves no doubt about her murderous intent.”

“The defendant did not want to ruin the face of Joanna [the victim], she ruined her life,” Mastrantonakis continued.

READ MORE: Joanna Paliospirou in a new post poses next to her snowman.

“When she threw the acid in her face, she accepted that it could be inhaled, swallowed, find its way to her trachea, and kill her,” he said, adding: “it was revenge that accepted the risk of death.”

Kakarantzoula claimed during the trial that she had no intent of killing Paliospirou.

She explained that stalked Paliospirou after suspecting her of dating a man with whom she had embarked on a sexual relationship in 2018.

She admitted to going to significant lengths to procure vitriol to the survivor’s place of work in an office building, saying she paid a man she met outside a shop in downtown Athens to get it for her.

READ MORE: Photographing Joanna Paliospirou: “She walked confidently between cars as if she was maskless.”