Hotel plunge choirgirl cheats death after bouncing off canvas canopy on school trip to Venice

13 April 2012

Su Cangatin-Ripley


A schoolgirl who was saved by a canvas canopy as she plunged 30ft from a hotel window was last night taken off the critical list.

Su Cangatin-Ripley, 16, was recovering in hospital in Venice with her parents by her side after falling from the ledge of the second-floor window when it gave way.
Her fall was broken only by the canopy of a bar directly below which the owner had forgotten to wind in.

Su was taken to hospital with head, chest and internal injuries following the fall early on Saturday morning while she was in Venice on a school choir tour.

Su, a euphonium player, is thought to have been having a sneaky cigarette with friends when she fell from the Hotel Cristallo on the Lido.

Last night she was moved from the intensive care unit of the Dell'Angelo hospital into a normal ward.

Hospital director Onofrio La Manna said: 'She has had several scans and apart from bruises to her liver, lungs and kidneys she is doing very well.

'She is breathing on her own after having been on a machine and her head and chest injuries appear superficial-She will be in hospital for a while yet while doctors keep an eye on her but she can think herself very lucky to be alive.'

Last night Su's divorced parents Irfan Cangatin and Fiona Ripley visited her with three of her classmates.

The window, circled, from where Su Cangatin-Ripley fell on to a canvas canopy which may have saved her life

The window, circled, from where Su Cangatin-Ripley fell on to a canvas canopy which may have saved her life

Turkish Mr Cangatin said: 'Su is OK and that's all that matters at the moment. It was an accident, it was one of those things that can happen but she is out of intensive care and she is going to be OK.'

Mrs Ripley said: 'Su is fine, what happened was regrettable but it was an accident and nothing else.

'We haven't really spoken about what happened before she fell, she says she can't remember much that happened before, but all that matters is that she is going to be OK.'

Su was in a party of 37 students and five teachers from the £4,165-a-year Emanuel School in Battersea, South London, and had arrived in Venice last Monday for a week-long series of concerts.

The party booked into the two-star Hotel Cristallo, a 1,000 year-old Venetian palazzo overlooking the main street of the Lido.

Damage is clearly visible on the window ledge

Damage is clearly visible on the window ledge

On the night she fell Su had gone to a beach party with the other pupils before returning to the hotel.

Manager Nicola Fullin claimed yesterday he had warned staff about the group's behaviour.

Mr Fullin said: 'The night before the students were sitting on the window ledges and were even spotted climbing from window to window to get to other rooms.

'We had told the teachers their behaviour was very dangerous and asked them to speak to the children.'

He said a policeman had told him Su had been sitting on the ledge smoking when she fell.

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