Young mum dies after passing out in hot tub and waking up to skin peeling off

Daily Mirror

06-06-2025

Mum-of-one Gabriele Cristine Barreto de Freita, 24, died after she hit her head when jumping into a hot tub, knocking her out, only to find her skin peeling away when she woke up
A young mum died with agonising third-degree burns after she fell asleep in a scalding hot tub and woke up to find her skin peeling off.
Mum-of-one Gabriele Cristine Barreto de Freitas, 24, had been at the motel in Curitiba, in the Brazilian state of Parana, with a man she had met at a party. When they got to the room, they turned on the hot tub and jumped in for a soak. But when her partner got out to go to bed, Gabriele stayed behind, apparently hitting her head and passing out, reports local media. She awoke with the water still steaming and her skin gruesomely peeling away from severe burns.
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Harrowing images and video footage from an intensive care unit where she was rushed to on May 25 show her whole body covered in bandages. Some hard-to-look at images show hand-sized strips of skin hanging from her face.
Gabriele's family said she seemed to be recovering, but just six days later, local media reported on 5th June, she suffered a massive cardiac arrest. Her sister, Jenifer Vaniele Barreto, explained: "They arrived at the motel and he turned on the tub to a hot temperature.
"The two went to shower, took a bath and he left first and went to bed. He heard her fall and slip in the tub." She added: "We don't understand how Gabriele's death happened. No one gave us any answers, they just said she had a cardiac arrest and died, that's all."
The police at the Curitiba Homicide Division have opened an investigation into the baffling death. The man she went with to the motel has not yet been interviewed by the police, according to local media reports.
But the family's lawyer Valter Ribeiro Junior says they are demanding tests on the hot tub's thermostat to see if it was faulty. He said: "It is unacceptable that someone goes to a motel for leisure and leaves burnt to the point of dying days later.
"If it happened to her, it's probably going to happen to other people. It is possible that the equipment is not up to date and may have caused these burns."
Gabriele leaves behind a five-year-old son, now being cared for by her mother.