‘I will be free’: Tragic model Lucy Markovic’s last days before Berlin brain surgery
Top Aussie model Lucy Markovic documenting the lead-up to what was supposed to be life-changing brain surgery. ‘I can’t wait to live life after this whole entire mess’, she posted shortly before she died.
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In the lead-up to the overseas brain surgery she hoped would change her life, model Lucy Markovic packed her suitcase with nothing but luck and positivity in mind.
Her friend told her the colour red would bring her luck, so she bought fuzzy red slippers, cosy red jumpers, painted her nails bright red, collected shiny red trinkets and even joked about buying red underwear.
And she meticulously documented it all, posting in the weeks leading up to her surgery on TikTok.
“After this (surgery) I will be in the clear. I will be free. And I’m so excited,” she said in a video posted to TikTok.
“I can’t wait to live life after this whole entire mess.”
But tragically, just 12 days after posting the first video about her journey to surgery in Berlin, Lucy died from complications.
The 27-year-old was diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation (AVM) several years ago, a condition where abnormal blood vessels tangle and can lead to bleeding and damage to brain tissue.
She’d suffered seizures as a result, undergone radiation and taken heavy medications in Australia in the hopes it would improve her condition.
But, frustrated with the care she received in Australia, Lucy found a surgeon in Berlin who was willing to perform surgery to drain an artery that had become so clogged it resembled the size of a golf ball.
“I have a four per cent chance per year that something could happen to me, like haemorrhaging in my brain” she said.
“And that is not good odds.
“After looking for neurosurgeons I have finally found someone that I’m really confident with.”
Her mum, sisters and boyfriend travelled from Australia and Dubai to Berlin with her, cuddling her in her bed at the Charite University Hospital and sharing meals with her before the “big day”.
“As anyone would be, I’m scared, but I’m confident in my surgeon,” she said.
“But I’m just very thankful that my family is here.”
Two days before her surgery she shared that she had to sign pages of paperwork acknowledging she understood the risks of the surgery and what could go wrong.
“It was just a phenomenal way to kick off my anxiety,” she told her followers.
“I was going through a mental state of wanting to throw up and also feeling fine all at the same time.”
To the hundreds of thousands of people following her journey online, her surgery on April 3 appeared to have gone well, with Lucy posting a tongue-in-cheek video of herself doing a “catwalk” in the hospital afterwards.
In her scarlet pyjamas, she slowly walked through a hallway, her eyes swollen and a bandage covering the back of her head.
“Post brain op runway… it’s giving fierce, it’s also giving Mrs Potato Head,” she wrote.
She had anticipated a 14-day stay in hospital after the surgery, seven in the intensive care unit, and seven on the ward.
But things quickly changed, with her boyfriend Carlo sharing the news Lucy was in a coma, due to the severe swelling on her brain.
“If they cannot get the (swelling) under control in the next few hours, another emergency surgery will need to be performed to remove the skull on the swollen side of the brain to get the pressure out,” he wrote.
Another update followed shortly after.
“Lucy is currently battling for her life, we need all your prayers right now,” Carlo said.
Eighteen hours later, Lucy’s family shared the news their “little Bambi” had died.
Her older sister Jelena, also a model, who was based in Dubai said she couldn’t fathom what had happened to her Lucy.
“This feels unreal… my world has shattered into a million pieces,” her sister Jelena wrote online.
“The amount of sadness that has overcome me is unbearable… I love you, my life will never be the same without you.”
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Originally published as ‘I will be free’: Tragic model Lucy Markovic’s last days before Berlin brain surgery
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