With 'Remarkable Strength,' Injured Surfside Mom Saves Daughter

Angela Gonzalez plummeted 4 floors, broke pelvis in condo collapse, then yanked teen out of rubble
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 26, 2021 7:30 AM CDT
She Broke Pelvis During 4-Story Fall, Then Saved Daughter in Rubble
A view of the Champlain Towers South condo complex is seen Friday in Surfside, Fla.   (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via AP)

As the search for survivors continues after a deadly condo collapse near Miami that has left at least four dead and more than 150 missing, one story in particular is standing out for a resident's "remarkable strength and determination," per CBS Miami. That resident is Angela Gonzalez, a psychologist who works with traumatized children and who ended up shattering her pelvis, among other injuries, when she and her 16-year-old daughter, Deven, were caught in the Thursday collapse at the Champlain Towers South condo complex in Surfside, plummeting from the ninth floor to the fifth floor. Despite her broken pelvis, Gonzalez was able to get herself out of the rubble, as well as yank Deven out.

Gonzalez's husband and Deven's dad, Edgar Gonzalez, is still among the missing. Adriana Gonzalez Chi, Edgar Gonzalez's sister, tells the New York Times she'd warned her brother multiple times that the building didn't feel safe, with leaks and mold among the complaints. "About a month ago I was standing on the balcony and saying, 'This is not safe,'" she says. "I looked at my niece and said, 'If you feel the building tremble, run.'" Her sister-in-law is now in a medically induced coma at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital with the broken pelvis, a lacerated liver, and injuries to her knees and hip. Deven, a volleyball player at Miami Senior High School, has had surgery for her broken left leg. A GoFundMe for the family notes that Deven has an older sister who wasn't in the condo when it collapsed. (More building collapse stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X