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.”
Imelda and her family experienced tragedy back in 2005 with her sister’s death, which, in turn, led to her devastated father, Paul’s, suicide seven years later. Her sister, Lynsey, was 15 at the time of her death, while Imelda was just 12 when her big sister fell overboard off a cruise ship balcony.
“We went on holiday in 2005 to America,” she said. “We went with four different families. And then we were taking a cruise ship to the Caribbean. It was about three days into the holiday, my sister fell overboard off a balcony.”
Imelda claims Lynsey was plied with alcohol at a nightclub, despite the legal drinking age being 21 and Lynsey being just 15. Imelda said: “There was a bartender that was serving my parents, and he was off his shift. And then he asked my sister if she wanted to come to the nightclub.
“It’s over 21 in America. So he took two of them into the nightclub, which was the other family’s daughter, Carla. And she was 15, and Lynsey was 15. And then he served about 16 cocktails for my sister.”
Imelda says her dad didn’t notice his 15-year-old daughter was missing until the barman brought her back, barely conscious after all the alcohol she had consumed. Imelda recalled: “He was just furious about her being drinking. She couldn’t even stand. So then we went up to the room, and my dad put her to bed.”
Moments later, Imelda saw her sister on the balcony of their room. She explained: “I could see her swaying too much. So then I had to run out, grab her, but I couldn’t pull her back over, because obviously I was 12, and she was 15. And then I had to let her go.”
Imelda says it took the cruise ship two-and-a-half ohurs to turn around and launch a search and rescue operation. Her sister’s body was never recovered and Imelda claims the barman disembarked the ship in Mexico and was never questioned or charged.
Her dad, Paul, was tortured by his daughter’s death, and was left devastated. He launched a campaign about cruise ship safety standards and self-published a book titled ‘Lynsey’s Law: Coffin Cruise Ships and Obama’. But, Imelda says he never truly recovered from Lynsey’s death and endured a “living nightmare” until he ended his life in 2013.
Imelda said that much of the trauma of losing two family members stayed buried for a long time before more recently resurfacing. She moved to Australia in 2019 for a “fresh start” and found work at a lash studio in Sydney’s upmarket Bondi. But, she was still tormented by her past trauma.
“I just hit rock bottom and, and then I ended up throwing myself off an 11-storery balcony,” she said. After the fall, she spent five monhs in hospital and returned to Ireland in June, having almost fully recovered from her physical injuries.
“I was in hospital,” she said. “I was upstairs at first, and then they put me in a mental institution afterwards. I just wasn’t happy – you know when you’re just not happy in a place. I should have went home earlier, but I feel like home wasn’t the place either. But then now that I’m being back now, I feel like it is.”
For emotional support you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email [email protected], visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.