During one beauty pageant, Brazilian model Mariana Bridi, 20, confided in friends that she was "living the dream."
Now she's fighting for her life in intensive care in a hospital in the Brazilian city of Serra after a series of operations to bring a potentially fatal infection under control.
Bridi is in "very serious condition" and breathing through a respirator, officials said.
In the past week, she's had both hands and feet amputated. Doctors removed both kidneys and in the most recent surgery last night removed part of her stomach.
Tribuna reporter Rafaele Gasparini, who spent several hours with family members at the Dorio Silva hospital's intensive care unit, told CNN that Brini's family was not optimistic about her condition, which is deteriorating rapidly.
"Her father told me that she is unconscious and her blood pressure is dropping rapidly," Gasparini said. "Her relatives walked out at 4:30 local (3:30 p.m. ET), and there seemed to be a farewell mood."
In the meantime, Gasparini said, the model is in a "forced coma" that may help the body recover from the physical shock. She is also being treated with noradrenaline. Known as a "fight or flight" chemical that the body releases in stressful situations, noradrenaline produces increased blood pressure and heart rate.
"They say her situation is very critical and that her chances [of survival] are not really significant, but she keeps on surprising everyone," said Henrique Fontes, executive director of Miss World Brazil.
"Two weeks ago, the doctor gave her 24 hours to live, and she's been fighting and resisting. She's quite amazing."
Less than one month ago, Mariana Bridi was a healthy 20-year-old who was well on the way to achieving her dream of becoming a world class model.
She placed sixth in the Miss Bikini International competition in China last year and took first place for the "Best in Swimsuit" category. In 2006 and 2007, she came fourth in the contest to become Brazil's entrant for the Miss World pageant.
Fontes said Bridi had recently been selected to compete in a national modeling contest by the same person who discovered Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen. Mariana had saved space in her diary for the competition in São Paolo in April.
That wasn't the only thing she had planned. Fontes said Bridi also dreamed of becoming a journalist. She was planning to move to São Paulo this year to begin her studies. She'd been living with her boyfriend, Thiago Simões, who is now spending as much time as he can by her bedside.
The pace of Bridi's deterioration from a vibrant, energetic young woman to a fragile patient in intensive care has been swift and shocking.
Bridi first sought medical advice after feeling ill in late December. Doctors said she had kidney stones, but her condition soon worsened.
Bridi was eventually diagnosed as suffering a urinary tract infection. By the time the infection was detected, it had developed into septicemia, an infection of the blood.
Doctors decided to amputate first her hands and then her feet after the condition reduced the amount of oxygen being delivered to her limbs.
Dr. Charles Clarke, honorary consultant neurologist for the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in the United Kingdom, said the development of a urinary tract infection to septicemia requiring amputation is "very rare."
However, he added that "it's not a very rare thing" that septicemia is caused by a urinary tract infection. "That will happen dozens of times in any big district general hospital," he said.
"The difficulty clinically is that when most of these things start off, they just start off looking like an infection.
"And it can be very difficult to diagnose: You have a temperature, and you're not very well. And you treat it, and it goes on to the full-blown picture. There may be no clinical evidence of that."
Bridi is now on life support, and the only recent communication she's had with her family is through her eyes.
"She doesn't talk. She responds by blinking her eyes, and she said that she wanted to live under this critical situation," Fontes said.
He described her as very persistent and determined, "a person who enjoyed life and went after what she wanted without fears."
News of Bridi's condition spread quickly throughout Brazil and then worldwide.
A message on her Web site said that the volume of traffic had caused it to crash and that the site had received more than 15,000 hits in two days.
Fontes issued a call for blood donors. According to the blog, Bridi has a rare blood type O-negative. By Tuesday, it said, more than 100 people had donated blood in her name.
The message said it had received "e-mails of solidarity from all corners of the world: Australia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, France, Italy, USA, Russia, etc. "
Bridi's family and friends have urged people to keep praying for her survival. "Mariana is [a] warrior and will win this battle."
Source : cnn.com
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