The acrobatic performer who fell more than four storeys while performing in central Auckland says she feels lucky to be alive.
Mikaela Blayney, 20, suffered just a broken jaw and broken foot after falling onto concrete in Aotea Square.
Today she spoke out about her ordeal, saying she thought it was a dream
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"And then I was in a neck brace lying down thinking am I paralysed?" she told Fairfax from her hospital bed today.
Blayney was harnessed in and suspended from the 14-metre Aotea Centre yesterday, when something went wrong.
In front of shocked witnesses she plummeted to the ground, and was rushed to hospital in a serious condition.
Remarkably, Blayney said she did not feel much pain.
"By the time I woke up in the ambulance I was already on morphine."
The wired-up performance had been a part of Auckland Council's Random Acts programme .
Today, the scene was roped off as investigations begin into exactly what went wrong.
Bystanders said Blayney took the force of the fall in her legs, and that the rope fell with her.
Witnesses told ONE News yesterday that the incident was "disturbing".
"She was at the very top, we thought she was coming down as part of the act and she didn't stop and she just went to the ground," one witness said.
It is likely this whole incident was caught on camera, as a security camera overlooks where the incident happened.
Auckland Council says no footage will be released until the Department of Labour finishes its investigation.
Blayney says she will keep doing acrobats, but "not so much of this aerial stuff".
She recently graduated from AUT in occupational therapy, and has been doing abseiling performances on and off for the past two years.
The remaining Vertical Auckland shows have been cancelled, but the rest of the Random Acts festival will continue.
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