Brazilian acrobat who survived the tragedy in an American circus talks about recovery: ‘I weighed 26 kilos’
“I weighed 26 kilos, today I’m 46, so I was 20 kilos below what I am. And full of fractures, at the same time I had plaster, plates.”
Stefany also shared how she felt when she found out that she could no longer work at the circus:
“It was a pain that killed my heart. I thought: ‘why at 19? Why didn’t this accident happen later?’ I wish I had lived longer, dreamed more.”
She returned home after three months in the hospital. The young woman stayed in the 35 kilo range for nine years. And only in the last year and a half has she started to recover physically.
Stefany is writing a book about everything she went through. To date, there have been ten surgeries.
“I discovered two years ago that I have arterial disease, some arteries are clogged, obstructed, due to various surgical interventions.”
It was a circus show. Eight acrobats, in a formation called the “human chandelier”. Suddenly, a shock — the artists fell to the ground.
It happened in the United States, but only now, after 10 years, Stefany decided to tell, for the first time, details about the accident and her physical and emotional recovery.
“The night before I didn’t sleep. I think it was a great intuition. At seven I got up, got ready, caught the bus. We lived on the train.”
“And then when this show starts, the curtain falls and then, seconds later, the structure falls. I wake up on the floor. I couldn’t breathe.”
“I passed out. My consciousness came and went. One of those times I tried to wake up, the first thing I wanted to do was get up. My body didn’t obey me.”
The American court ordered the payment of compensation.
See the full report below:
The Brazilian acrobat who almost died in an American circus
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