Brazil rope-jump victim, 21, was still alive after 130ft fall as nurse shares devastating details
Topics: World News, News, Crime, Real Life
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: NBC
Topics: World News, News, Crime, Real Life
An off-duty nurse on the scene as Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was thrown from a 130ft bridge by bungee instructors who failed to attach her safety rope has revealed the 21-year-old initially survived the fall.
The Brazilian woman died in Limeira, São Paul, over the weekend while rope jumping, after two members of staff threw her off the area's abandoned 'Skeleton Bridge', not having noticed that her harness hadn't been attached.
In harrowing footage from the incident, Rodrigues de Freitas was held in a 'Superman' pose with her arms and legs in a horizontal position, as the group approached the edge of the platform.
Seconds after she was thrown, witnesses - including the victim's fiancée - told the staff members, 'the rope, people, the rope'.
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Tragically, however, the physical education and sports management graduate had already hit the ground below before the team realised their mistake.
It has since been revealed that a 26-year-old nurse who was also set to jump after Rodrigues de Freitas rushed to tend to her on the ground.
Speaking to police, the medic claimed she'd attempted to provide assistance to the jumper by resuscitation before paramedics and firefighters arrived.
The unnamed nurse added that Rodrigues de Freitas had a very weak pulse by the time she reached her.
"She was giving that post-death sigh [...] I picked her up, checked, and she had a very weak pulse," he said, as per local news outlet G1. "I started CPR, and it stopped."
The woman also verified that the victim had been wearing a safety harness attached to her abdomen, but that it was without the main cord.
She claims she administered CPR until an ambulance arrived, after which defibrillators were applied - sadly, without success.
Rodrigues de Freitas was pronounced dead on the scene.
Six people were subsequently transported to Limeira’s Second Police District, after which three men were arrested.
The trio, later identified as Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves, 27, and Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42, have since been charged with homicide with implied malice.
The charge means that police understand it was an accident, but that the group assume responsibility for the risk which caused the victim's death.
Speaking to the press in the days since, police investigator Andrea Levy claimed the three instructors had acknowledged that Rodrigues de Freitas was not connected to safety ropes when she jumped off the bridge.
"They do not remember whether they forgot to attach [the ropes], or who was supposed to do it, or who failed to check. But the fact is, the ropes were not attached to her," Levy said.
O Globo previously reported that none of the instructors had been able to explain the incident, with Cintra alleging: "Usually it's Felipe who puts on the rope. In 99 per cent of cases. And I assist with the operation.
"I participate in the check, I call the person, and I check the helmet. But in her case, I don't remember. I don't remember."
Ponte do Esqueleto, nicknamed Skeleton Bridge, was meant to be part of Brazil’s Federal Railway Network (RFFSA).
It’s been abandoned for around 30 years. However, it has remained popular with extreme sports enthusiasts, and this isn’t the first tragedy that has taken place there.
According to O Tempo, one businessman claimed the bridge receives 500 visitors a month.
Mum-of-one Kelly Stefani de Oliveira Alves, 39, is cycling with her husband on the Skeleton Bridge when she loses her balance as her foot touches a low wall.
Tragically, she falls off the bridge and drops 15 metres with her bike, dying at the scene and leaving behind a seven-year-old son.
Following the accident, Brazil’s Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI) asked for the bridge to be closed and for danger signs to warn people not to go on it.
Nevertheless, activities at the site resumed.
Two women fall from the Skeleton Bridge and suffer serious injuries.
One woman is taken to Santa Casa de Limeira hospital with critical injuries. Another suffers multiple fractures throughout her body.