Man Suffers Severe Facial Injuries After Collision with Metal Bar While Pursuing Phone Thief

A MAN has told how he horrifyingly lost part of jaw, lip and six teeth after falling on a metal bar whilst chasing the thief who stole his phone.

André Gayoso, 35, was heading home from a night out in São Paulo, when a cyclist sped by and out of his hand while he was waiting for an .

André was left with part of his jaw missing after a thief snatched his phone Credit: SWNS Pictured, an X-ray of André’s jaw after reconstruction work Credit: SWNS

After chasing the thief down the road he then reportedly tripped and fell face first on a metal bar outside a shop front.

The fall left him in a coma for 13 days with a broken jaw and chin that need reconstructing.

André has since been through 11 corrective surgeries to help reconstruct his chin, with doctors initially attempting a skin graft from his left forearm which did not work.

Requiring 7cm of bone replaced in his chin, doctors were forced to take from his right fibular bone in his leg in the 11-hour surgery.

Recalling his traumatic ordeal that occurred in October 2022, the sunglasses business owner from São Paulo, said: “I started walking and waiting for my Uber then I lost my memory walking towards the Uber.

“I don’t remember anything afterwards, I woke in the ICU [intensive care unit] 13 days later.

“What I heard happened because it became quite well known in is they took the phone from my hand and I started chasing him.

“A bartender handed me a broom handle and I have a distinct memory of trying to use it as a spear to jab the wheel of the bicycle but I’m pretty sure I had to get at least parallel with the guy to execute the throw.

Doctors were forced to take from his right fibular bone in his leg in the 11-hour surgery Credit: SWNS Pictured, an X-ray of André’s jaw after reconstruction work Credit: SWNS

“That’s probably what I was trying to do and either I was turning a corner or going through a tight space with stands and stores to the right.

“People were coming upward and I was going downhill on the road.

“I tried to dodge them, tripped and hit my head and chin on a square metal bar put there in front of the shops used to keep robbers from breaking in”.

He added: “When I woke up it was very scary because I couldn’t talk because I’d lost part of my jaw and mouth and I couldn’t move.

“I’d been in the coma for 13 days so I’d lost all muscle mass. I lost around 20kg in 13 days.

“They wiped out my bank accounts, some crypto and my US bank account clean.

“It took me a month to get my stuff back in order. Honestly, I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, I imagine it.

“Also I am a very upbeat guy and I always look on the bright side, it’s the correct way to look at life.”

Luckily André was just 600 metres away from a local hospital, where he was taken to be treated.

His time in ICU culminated in “enormous” medical debt and the “big surgeries” were covered by his , but all other minor procedures he is paying for himself.

He continued to manufacture his sunglasses whilst in hospital.

“In the ICU my mum came and said ‘here’s your watch, here’s your shoes, your pants and shirt were cut so they didn’t come back’, he said.

Pictured, André after his jaw was reconstructed Credit: SWNS André had no memory of the accident but was told a biker sped by and snatched his phone out of his hand Credit: SWNS

“And then ‘oh last thing, your sunglasses are here’. There was not a single scratch on them or nothing.

As well as 11 corrective surgeries, André said he has also had prosthetic inserted and a further three plastic surgeries to shrink his mouth and help his speech as it was “too wide”.

André also had to have a tracheostomy fitted for 11 months to ensure he would be able to breathe throughout his many surgeries.

“My last surgery was December 2025 so far,” he said.

“Now I have more stuff to do like laser to take the out of my lip because the skin on my lip is skin from my leg from my fourth surgery.

“I need laser to destroy the follicles of hair that are in my lip.

“Now I’m waiting to do another session for micropigmentation to make my lip look red again and then have beard and hair implants.

“I lost a lot of hair as 11 surgeries is too much stress on my body.”