A husband heard a ‘loud blow’ as his wife’s body was ‘cut in half’ by an elevator as she was transported on a stretcher moments after giving birth.
Rocío Cortés Núñez, 25, who lived in the town of Dos Hermanas near Seville, is said to have been killed as she was transported on a stretcher between the second and third floors of the Valme Hospital in Seville, southern Spain.
She was being taken to a maternity unit after waking up following a C-section.
Rocio Cortes Nunez was trapped after the lift when it made an ‘unusual movement.’ The mother-of-three is pictured here during an earlier pregnancy in 2015
Rocio Cortes Nunez is said to have been killed as she was transported on a stretcher between the second and third floors of the Valme Hospital in Seville, southern Spain
‘We heard a loud blow in the elevator,’ her husband Jose Gaspar said.
The victim’s husband-of-four-years, who works as a waiter, told Spanish paper ABC: ‘This cannot end like this. This time it has been Rocio but tomorrow it could be another person. I’m a total wreck.’
Her baby was not with her when the tragedy happened.
She is also a mother to two other daughters, aged three and four, according to Spanish newspaper El Correo.
A porter was taking her on a stretcher from the second floor to her third-floor room at Valme Hospital in Seville after she woke up from her Caesarian anaesthetic.
One local report said the lift began to function unexpectedly before Rocio was fully in and the doors had closed, causing her head to become trapped.
Her baby was not with her when the tragedy happened. Pictured during an earlier pregnancy in 2015
The victim’s husband-of-four-years, who works as a waiter, told Spanish paper ABC: ‘This cannot end like this. This time it has been Rocio but tomorrow it could be another person. I’m a total wreck’
But regional health minister Marina Alvarez – responding to initial reports that the porter was leaving the lift after he pressed the button to go up but nothing happened – said Rocio was trapped after the lift made an ‘unusual movement’ as the worker went to remove her on a stretcher.
The baby, initially thought to be beside her mother, was on her way to a different hospital to receive treatment for a heart condition at the time – and remained at Virgen del Rocio Hospital in Seville on Monday where she is said to be responding well.
Firefighters took nearly two hours to free Rocio’s mauled body following the tragedy around 2.30pm on Sunday.
Witnesses have described the incident as ‘something out of a horror film.’ One unnamed hospital worker said: ‘If they hadn’t taken the baby to another hospital she could have suffered the same fate because they always put new-borns on their mother’s breast, even when it’s been a Caesarian.’
Police and firefighters rushed to the scene along with duty medics but could nothing to save her life.
The victim also has two other daughters, aged three and four
Local media reported the young woman’s father Juan Manuel Cortes shouted: ‘They killed her! My daughter was killed!’
Rocio’s father, who only found out she had died after travelling to the Seville hospital where the tragedy occurred to be met by police, added: ‘They have killed my beautiful daughter, the joy of my life, and they’ve left three young girls without their mum.’
Rocio’s mother Carmen told local daily Diario de Sevilla she became worried when she reached the hospital with her husband and discovered an accident had happened in the lift.
She said: ‘My heart missed a beat. I asked after my daughter but no-one was telling me anything.
‘She had given birth at 11 in the morning so I went to the information desk. They told me there a young girl had died and then confirmed it was my daughter. What a cruel death she’s suffered.’
The victim’s brother-in-law David Gaspar, described his brother, the victim’s husband, as ‘devastated’.
The victim is said to have been killed as she was transported on a stretcher between the second and third floors of the Valme Hospital in Seville, southern Spain
He told Europa Press: ‘It’s incredible. We still don’t believe them. Something has to be done. This cannot go unpunished.’
An investigation, coordinated by an investigating magistrate, is now underway.
Rocio was one of seven siblings. Her family have already made a formal complaint to a court which will investigate the tragedy.
Marina Alvarez described the freak event as a ‘quick, unusual and tragic accident’ and confirmed the lift had last been checked on August 12.
Hospital manager Silvia Calzon has already met with the firm that looks after the lift as well as the family of the dead woman and the hospital porter.
Friends of the victim claimed the lift had suffered several problems over the past month, although there was no immediate official confirmation of any previous problems.
The hospital where the horror accident occurred is a public hospital and the place where Andalucia’s regional president Susana Diaz gave birth to her baby boy in July 2015.
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