Horror moment gym-goer is left paralysed and BLIND as head is crushed by ‘malfunctioning’ weight machine
THIS is the moment a gym-goer was temporarily blinded and paralysed when a weights machine appeared to brake mid-set.
Horror CCTV footage revealed that Abraão Viana’s head was crushed between the metal handles as he exercised.
In the clip, Abraão, 32, was chest-flying 110lb at a gym near Fortaleza, Brazil on September 18 when the machine is said to have malfunctioned.
All of a sudden, the machine’s handles clamp tightly around his temples.
In the footage, the sales assistant holds his head in his hands clearly in immense pain before dropping to the floor disorientated.
Abraão recalled: “The impact was very strong, and at that moment I couldn’t see anything anymore.
“At the time, I think I blacked out. I couldn’t open my eyes because they were bathed in blood. The cut was on the right side of my forehead.”
The part-time influencer described being carried out in the arms of the manager and instructor and rushed to the hospital’s emergency wing.
“I couldn’t even breathe from the pain, nor could I open my eyes because of the blood, which was flowing heavily.
“I arrived at the emergency unit in a wheelchair. I couldn’t even walk properly.”
After treatment, Abraão said: “I underwent exams, there was no trauma, nothing. I didn’t even need stitches.”
Luckily, the impact did not cause him lasting damage.
After being discharged early the next morning, he spent a week resting at home on pain medication.
Abraão – who has nearly 20,000 followers across social media platforms – said the gym provided him with support and covered the costs of his treatment.
He told local media: “I’m not suing. It was an incident. It happens.”
Last week, he returned to the gym and even worked out on the since-repaired pec deck.
“I went to do the same exercise, the cable had already been replaced,” he said.
“But I came back a little scared, you know, after that blow of 50 kg to the head.”
The gym said in a statement that the machine was not faulty but had only suffered “a cable rupture”, adding that it is a “common occurrence in machines with steel cables”.
It comes as a popular bodybuilder was killed in the gym after 460lb weights fell on his neck in a “freak accident”.
In July, fitness influencer Justyn Vicky, 33, was strength-training when he slipped under the weight of the heavy bar.