Amputated Mariana Bridi da Costa Dies

Feet and hands amputated to save her life from the drug-resistant bacteria, Mariana Bridi da Costa died last Saturday.


Despite efforts of Brazilian doctors to spare the already amputated body of the young model from the drug-resistant bacteria, Bridi's body no longer reacted to the potent drugs pumped into her to stop the spread of infection. The bacteria in her veins have spread from her head to her toes. By Saturday, she was already dead from the infection caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an extremely drug-resistant bacteria. While it is described to have “low antibiotic susceptibility,” it also easily mutates to develop resistance to new drugs. Just imagine how quickly the bacteria have spread into Bridi's body – she was misdiagnosed with kidney stones on late December but when she returned back to the hospital on January 3 for the seemingly ordinary urinary tract infection, she was already on “life-threatening low blood pressure.” The bacteria caused her to lose her feet and hands, and eventually her life.

What a pity! At 20, Mariana Bridi da Costa had a promising modeling career. She was one of the many Hispanic women who use their phenomenal beauty to alleviate their family from poverty. Born to a taxi driver father and a house cleaner mother, Bridi started modeling at the age of 14. When she turned 18, she earned the right of being a beauty queen as she became a finalist to the Brazilian Miss World pageant. She had also won international bikini competitions. Last year, she ranked fourth in the Face of the Universe competition in South Africa. She was to participate next month in the second stage of a modeling competition held in Sao Paulo by Brazilian model scout Dilson Stein, the one who discovered supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

Mariana Bridi da Costa's funeral was at the town of Marechal Floriano. With the early death of the model and beauty queen, the only consolation that her family had cling on to was the fact that she did not suffer long from her illness. “God is comforting our hearts because he wanted her to be with him now,” her father had said. Outside the hospital where she died, Bridi's aunt also told reporters “I believe that the serenity on her face came from this spiritual comfort.”