Chile: Man survives 17-storey fall from apartment building
After partying through the night, it's only natural to come down at some point. But few have ended a bender the way 23-year old Chilean Sebastian Reyes recently did and live to talk about it.
Reyes fell from the 17th floor of a balcony of a residential building on 20 June, in the central Chilean city of Rancagua. After falling more than 130ft, Reyes landed on the roof of a parking unit, and fell through to the ground. His condition was critical, but he's been released by the Rancagua Regional Hospital with fractures in his pelvis and femur.
The haunting images from the fall were caught by security cameras at the Torres de Alameda building complex. Speaking to local media on 28 July Reyes recalled the experience.
"I felt the fall, but nothing else, and I didn't wake up. I woke up in the hospital," he said.
The night before, Reyes said he and some friends gathered in the Torres de la Alameda building complex.
"After watching the (Copa America soccer) game (Chile vs. Bolivia), we went to the club and after I came here (to the apartment). I don't remember, (I came back around) around 6.30am, or 7am."
As the night turned into morning, the group took the party to a balcony on the building before Reyes lost his balance.
Esteban Faundez, Reyes' friend at whose apartment the incident occurred, recalled witnessing the fall.
"When he fell, he called for us, and when we went to see where he went, he fell through (the parking shelter)," Faundez told local media.
An ambulance driver who was with Reyes the night of the accident spoke to local media about how he doubted the young man's chances for survival.
"I thought the patient was going to die as a result of the injuries he suffered," he said.
In his interview with TVN television of Chile, Reyes showed a tattoo on his arm with the inscription, "God, don't abandon me."
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