Suicidal Miami woman falls 14 stories -- and walks away with broken arm. It was her 2nd attempt.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...sfla-news-miami
Miami Bureau | Posted May 7 2002 | By Diana Marrero
MIAMI -- A woman plunged 14 stories from a Brickell high-rise, landed on her rear and got back on her feet on Monday. It was her second suicide attempt in three days.
Astonished rescuers and neighbors interpreted her survival as a sign that she wasn't meant to leave this life just yet.
"You're trying to take your life away, you fall from the 14th floor, and you survive. This is an awakening that this is not your time," said Mike Fresco, the Miami police officer who found her walking around and talking minutes after her fall.
At the Four Ambassadors, the Brickell Avenue hotel and condo where the 32-year-old woman lives, those who heard her story marveled at God's will.
"There's a god up there for sure," said Joe Toro, the security chief who heard a loud boom and then saw the woman, alive and sitting on the roof of a 2001 Honda CRV. "I was expecting to pick up her pieces."
The Honda cushioned her fall. While the impact shattered its windows and crunched its the metal roof , she stood up with only a broken arm.
"You see this in the movies -- people jump from a building, land on a car and walk away," said Eric Barquist, a general and trauma surgeon at Jackson Memorial Hospital who teaches at the University of Miami School of Medicine. "That doesn't happen in real life."
Though he could not comment on this specific case, Barquist said internal injuries from such falls usually are fatal.
Toro said it was about 9:30 a.m. when he found the woman, who told him she slipped and fell. He went up to the 14th floor condo she shares with her mother to deliver the news.
"She didn't even know," he said. "She said my daughter's sleeping right here."
Inside, Toro found a dining room chair next to an open window.
Residents getting ready to start the day saw the woman plummet by their windows, said security guard Beatriz Figueredo. Figueredo rushed outside, only to see the woman scrambling down from the top of the Honda.
"She was trembling. Her whole body was shaking," she said. "She was very confused."
Perez did not offer any explanations about why she jumped.
Fresco said the woman had tried to commit suicide Friday by overdosing on pills but was rushed to the hospital and had her stomach pumped.
"She has a lot of personal problems," he said. "I think it's too much for her."
The woman is going through a divorce after seven years of marriage and has been struggling with other problems, he said.
"I told her you don't have to take your life away," said Fresco, who hospitalized her under the state's Baker Act, which allows a person considered a danger to self or others to be held for up to 72 hours for psychological evaluation. "She's very depressed. She needs help."
Neither she nor her relatives could be reached for comment. She was in stable condition late Monday at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
That's what's truly important, said J.P. Conil, whose mother owns the car that was destroyed as it cushioned the woman's fall.
"The car's nothing in the grand scheme of things," he said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...sfla-news-miami
Miami Bureau | Posted May 7 2002 | By Diana Marrero
MIAMI -- A woman plunged 14 stories from a Brickell high-rise, landed on her rear and got back on her feet on Monday. It was her second suicide attempt in three days.
Astonished rescuers and neighbors interpreted her survival as a sign that she wasn't meant to leave this life just yet.
"You're trying to take your life away, you fall from the 14th floor, and you survive. This is an awakening that this is not your time," said Mike Fresco, the Miami police officer who found her walking around and talking minutes after her fall.
At the Four Ambassadors, the Brickell Avenue hotel and condo where the 32-year-old woman lives, those who heard her story marveled at God's will.
"There's a god up there for sure," said Joe Toro, the security chief who heard a loud boom and then saw the woman, alive and sitting on the roof of a 2001 Honda CRV. "I was expecting to pick up her pieces."
The Honda cushioned her fall. While the impact shattered its windows and crunched its the metal roof , she stood up with only a broken arm.
"You see this in the movies -- people jump from a building, land on a car and walk away," said Eric Barquist, a general and trauma surgeon at Jackson Memorial Hospital who teaches at the University of Miami School of Medicine. "That doesn't happen in real life."
Though he could not comment on this specific case, Barquist said internal injuries from such falls usually are fatal.
Toro said it was about 9:30 a.m. when he found the woman, who told him she slipped and fell. He went up to the 14th floor condo she shares with her mother to deliver the news.
"She didn't even know," he said. "She said my daughter's sleeping right here."
Inside, Toro found a dining room chair next to an open window.
Residents getting ready to start the day saw the woman plummet by their windows, said security guard Beatriz Figueredo. Figueredo rushed outside, only to see the woman scrambling down from the top of the Honda.
"She was trembling. Her whole body was shaking," she said. "She was very confused."
Perez did not offer any explanations about why she jumped.
Fresco said the woman had tried to commit suicide Friday by overdosing on pills but was rushed to the hospital and had her stomach pumped.
"She has a lot of personal problems," he said. "I think it's too much for her."
The woman is going through a divorce after seven years of marriage and has been struggling with other problems, he said.
"I told her you don't have to take your life away," said Fresco, who hospitalized her under the state's Baker Act, which allows a person considered a danger to self or others to be held for up to 72 hours for psychological evaluation. "She's very depressed. She needs help."
Neither she nor her relatives could be reached for comment. She was in stable condition late Monday at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
That's what's truly important, said J.P. Conil, whose mother owns the car that was destroyed as it cushioned the woman's fall.
"The car's nothing in the grand scheme of things," he said.
Mother-in-law hmmmmmm 
