'Please God, Save Me,' Said Acrobat Who Fell 25 Feet in Circus Stunt
An acrobat who fell 25 feet during a circus act begged God to save her.
— -- The circus aerialist whose 25-foot plunge to the ground was caught on tape took responsibility for the incident and said she’s anxious to get back to work.
“It's part of my life -- it's what I do. I don't feel normal if I'm not working,” Vickki Garcia told ABC News.
Garcia fell in Houston on Thursday during a stunt at the Circo Hermanos Vazquez, a traveling circus known for its daredevil acrobatics.
Garcia is an eighth-generation circus performer with two young sons whom she hopes will join the family business. She and her husband, Pablo, form the Duo Garcia, and they've done the rocket routine -- the stunt from which she fell -- for 17 years.
Footage of the accident, captured by a spectator, shows Garcia spinning over the audience and hanging by her hair from a replica rocket ship before plunging into the arena’s seating area.
Staffers rushed to her aid.
The mother of two young boys told ABC News Tuesday at the circus that she remembers slipping.
“And I said ‘Please God, save me, please God, save me,’” she recalled.
“I have my safety cable," she added. "I clip my safety cable in and then I pass the loop to my husband. And as I was going into the position, I always check if my safety cable's in, but apparently I didn't clip it in far enough.”
From there, Garcia said, everything moved in slow motion for her.
“The next thing I remember is somebody said, ‘Don't move her, don't move her, don't move her,’ and then I don't remember anything else until they were doing the X-rays at the hospital,” she said.
Garcia suffered minor injuries, which she described as “a little bruise here, a little bruise here."
"I'm doing so many exercises," she added, "walking around everywhere so I can go back to work.”
Lorena Vignaud, the circus’ general manager, characterized Garcia’s fall as “human error.”
“We totally back them up,” she said, referring to Garcia and her husband. “We're here to support them the way that they've been supporting us throughout the whole tour.”
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