Megan still smiling moments before the stage collapsed
At 14:30 on Thursday 31st October, Miss World Chairman Julia Morley and Miss World Megan Young visited an orphanage housing 78 children in Port Au Prince Haiti. The children were in their school class on the second floor of this temporary building.
When they saw Miss World in her crown around 20 children rushed toward her. As they came forward the floor collapsed. Julia and one of the children, Jonathan, suffered fractures after falling through the floor, landing 8 to 10 feet below, being hit by the debris from above. Miraculously all the other children and Miss World Megan Young escaped either unhurt or with just cuts and bruises.
However, Julia was in agony after the fall. It was impossible to move her from the building without a stretcher and we had to wait for a few hours for medical help. Finally a temporary ambulance transferred Julia and Jonathan to a local Medishare hospital. X-Rays revealed that Julia had suffered a significant fracture high in her hip area and that Jonathan had suffered a leg fracture. The doctors repaired Jonathan’s leg fracture but felt that it was too risky to treat Julia’s injuries at the local hospital.
It was therefore decided that Julia would be airlifted to Miami to undergo immediate surgery.
Julia was therefore flown overnight by Air Ambulance from Haiti to Miami. She is currently in Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, after surgeons completed a 5 1/2 hour operation to put her hip back together.
The surgeon has said that the operation went very well. It was a much more difficult operation than the first X-ray revealed in Haiti. The surgeon described it as a “high impact break with a lot of soft tissue damage”. This took a lot of additional time to repair. As part of the repair they have inserted a metal plate on Julia’s hip (instead of a pin) to add more stability to the joint.
The surgeon says that she now needs rest and intensive therapy. With the length and scale of the operation, she will be here in Miami for a while before she can return to London. The good news is that with hard work over the coming week, the surgeon believes that she can make a full recovery.
Megan Young also fell through the floor but manage to land on her feet and thereby escape injury. Furthermore, despite the shock of the fall, Megan held on to her Miss World crown as the building collapsed around her. Miraculously Megan ensured that the Crown remained undamaged despite all that was going on.
Part of this incredible story was captured on film as Megan’s year is the subject of a new film documentary.
The collapsed stage
