A beautician who survived an 11-storey plunge from a balcony has opened up on the terror of her ordeal and her heartbreaking family history. Imelda O'Brien plummeted from the unit in Bondi, Sydney, January last year, with the terrifying fall broken only by hitting the fifth floor decking. The 30-year-old was incredibly lucky to survive, but suffered a broken back, neck and leg in the fall.
Imelda, an Irish national living and working in Australia at the time, laid unconscious for half an hour before managing to raise the alarm. Hearing her cries, a neighbour was able to ring for an ambulance and she was rushed to hospital. She has now bravely spoken about the events a year ago, after a traumatic past in which she lost her sister who fell from a cruise ship in an unimaginably tragic accident, with father Paul dying seven years later by suicide. Speaking to The Bear, 'Ireland's biggest podcast', she denied speculation she had been drinking heavily before her fall and revealed the details of her family's tragic history.
"When I fell, I blacked out on the way down and then about half an hour later, I think, I woke up," she said. "At that time, I was paralysed. I remember getting to the hospital and I was like, can I walk?". She went on to say: "I landed on someone else's balcony and then I obviously had to shout for help. And a woman came out of the balcony and she rang the police, and then she rang the ambulance. I broke my lower back, I broke my leg, there's a big, massive scar there. And then I tore the ligaments, tore the tendonds, and I broke my ribs.".
