Tragic, Utterly Tragic

Mariana Bridi, the Brazilian Miss World representative, has had her hands and feet amputated due to a severe urinary infection!

She is stable at an Espirito Santo ICU, after originally having been misdiagnosed back in late December. Her father told the press that the most important thing is to save her life, but my God, this sent a chill up my spine. She had such a promising pageanting career, not to mention her modeling one.



I have to say that whenever I travel, I am very nervous of getting ill in South America or even in developed countries. No matter how many reputable hospitals they have, something strange always seems to happen there, in my own family's experience. I speak as a daughter of a medical doctor who actually taught around the world, including hospitals of great renown.

In 1985, the transitional Brazilian President Tancredo Nêves died of "hospital infection", after surgery in São Paulo. He refused to be transported to the US for further treatment, and that bit of nationalistic pride possibly cost him his life.

Let's not forget that it took a SAMU ambulance over two hours to take the still-living Princess Diana exactly three ridiculous miles to the very famous Hospital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière. The French will tell you that they have a medical doctor riding around in each of them, and that they have directives to go as slowly as possible -- the exact opposite of Anglo-Saxon medical establishment rules. Madness.

Regardless of what was the fault, I am so very sorry for Mariana Bridi, and she will be in my prayers tonight.

In case of interest, I found two sites devoted to the "Misses" of Brazil. They are choc-a-bloc with the most beautiful women on earth, at least, in my opinion.

Universo da Misses
Misses Do Brasil

UPDATE, WITH REGRET: Ron posts the sad news.

And sadly, she passed away this morning.

Repousa em paz, Mariana. Horrivel, mesmo.