RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — One month ago, beauty queen Mariana Bridi, 20, was living the dream of many young Brazilian women, trading her good looks for a modeling career that promised to lift her family out of poverty.
Then she contracted a seemingly ordinary urinary tract infection. The bacteria spread quickly and inexorably through her body, proving to be extremely drug-resistant. In a desperate bid to save her life, doctors amputated her hands and feet. But by Saturday she was dead.
“God is comforting our hearts because he wanted her to be with him now,” her father, Agnaldo Costa, told reporters outside the hospital where his daughter died. “I can’t accept that my daughter left us so soon.”
Bridi’s website says she began modeling at age 14 with the hope of giving “a dignified life to her parents.” Her father is a taxi driver and her mother a house cleaner. By the age of 18, she was well on her way: In 2007 and 2008, she was a finalist in the Brazilian stage of the Miss World pageant. The Associated Press
