Model dies after heart attack
2007-02-16 07:18
Montevideo - An 18-year-old model in Uruguay has died of heart failure six months after her sister, another model, suffered the same fate in the middle of a runway show, officials said.
Eliana Ramos, 18 and known by the nickname Elle, died on Tuesday, her body discovered by her grandmother, with whom she was staying as her parents were away. She had worked with the modelling agency of Pancho Dotto in Argentina.
Ramos' autopsy ruled she died of acute heart failure, a court source told AFP. "Nothing unusual was found," the source said.
But the young model's death, and that of her sister Luisel, who died at 22 on August 2, raised questions as to whether they might have had eating disorders or used drugs.
Luisel collapsed after walking down the runway as she headed back into a dressing room in the middle of a show. A medical student unsuccessfully tried to revive her.
In her case the autopsy found that Luisel died of heart failure and mentioned a congenital heart defect.
In November a 21-year-old Brazilian model died of anorexia a day before she was scheduled to fly to Paris for a photo shoot. Ana Carolina Reston was 1.74m tall and weighed 40kg when she died.
'Excessively low weight'
Her death provoked outrage at the global fashion industry for emphasising models who are allegedly unhealthily thin.
On Sunday five models were banned from Madrid's most important ready-to-wear fashion show because they were too thin, the organiser's official doctor said.
The five, out of 69 due to take part, will be excluded from the Pasarela Cibeles show "because of their excessively low weight", said Dr Susana Monereo.
"Their weight can have a bad influence and be responsible for problems linked to anorexia," she told a news conference in Madrid.
She said that the regional government of Madrid, which helps finance the show, aimed to ensure that "young people do not take as examples models who are too thin".
Last year five models were barred for the same reason.
They had a body mass index (BMI) of below 18, calculated by dividing weight in kilogrammes by the square of height in metres, (56 kilogrammes for 175 centimetres), the limit fixed by the regional authorities based on World Health Organisation guidelines.