A Brazilian beauty queen has died at 27 after suffering a brain hemorrhage and a heart attack following a routine operation to have her tonsils removed.
Gleycy Correia — who was crowned Miss United Continents Brazil in 2018 — passed away Monday at a hospital in the Brazilian city of Macaé more than two months after the simple procedure. Her body has been sent to a local medical examiner for an autopsy.
“She had surgery to remove her tonsils [in late March] and after five days at home, she had a hemorrhage,” Correia’s family priest, Lidiane Alves Oliveira, told the Mirror. “She went to [the local hospital] Unimed and had a cardiac arrest on April 4,” he continued.
“Since then she was in a coma, with no neurological activity, and today she passed away,” the priest heartbreakingly stated.
Meanwhile, another another religious official and family friend, Pastor Jak Abreu, took to social media to share his condolences.
Abreu stated that the beauty queen’s parents believe that there was medical malpractice during the routine tonsil removal operation.
“God chose this day to collect our princess,” he wrote. “We know that she will be greatly missed, but she will now be brightening the sky with her smile.”
Correia boasted more than 52,000 followers on Instagram, with her account being taken over by her family after she fell into a coma.
The brunette beauty was born into poverty in Brazil, and used her social media accounts to talk about her humble beginnings, the Sun reported.
“I really wasn’t born in a golden cradle, I’m from a very humble family, but I’m so proud of it, really proud,” she wrote beneath one post.
Correia first began working at the age of 8, getting a job as a manicurist at a neighborhood beauty salon.
As a teenager, she began entering local beauty contests before she was eventually crowned Miss United Continents Brazil at the age of 23.
After winning the pageant, the brunette worked as a model and a beautician who specialized in permanent makeup. She posted much of her work on her Instagram page.
The results of the autopsy are pending. It is unclear whether Correia’s family plans to pursue legal action against the surgeon who performed the tonsil removal surgery.
Correia will be buried at a service to be held on Tuesday.
