Imelda plunged from an 11th floor Bondi balcony and survived. Now she tells how she has found hope after her life was rocked by a series of devastating family tragedies

EXCLUSIVE

A Sydney beautician who plunged from an 11th storey unit has broken her silence about her traumatic ordeal, and revealed how her tormented past led to the terrifying fall.

Irish national Imelda O’Brien, 30, who owned an eyelash salon in Bondi Junction, was rushed to hospital with a broken back, ribs and leg after the 2am plunge last  January.

But now she has revealed how she lay paralysed and unconscious in the dark for half an hour after she landed on on a fifth floor deck – but managed to raise the alarm.

In an interview on ‘Ireland’s biggest podcast’ The Bear, Ms O’Brien denied speculation she had been drinking heavily beforehand and insisted she was now sober.

She also revealed details of her tragedy-stricken family, which saw her teenage sister die when she fell from a cruise ship, followed by her heartbroken father’s own death.

‘When I fell, I blacked out on the way down and then about half an hour later, I think, I woke up,’ she said. 

‘At that time, I was paralysed. I remember getting to the hospital and I was like, can I walk?’ 

Imelda O’Brien (pictured) was saved by a deck on the fifth floor when it broke her fall as she fell from her 11th floor Bondi balcony, but she still suffered a broken leg, ribs, and back

Ms O’Brien says that her childhood trauma came back 

She added: ‘I landed on someone else’s balcony and then I obviously had to shout for help.

‘And a woman came out of the balcony and she rang the police, and then she rang the ambulance.

‘I broke my lower back, I broke my leg, there’s a big, massive scar there. And then I tore the ligaments, tore the tendons, and I broke my ribs.’

Ms O’Brien’s tragedy-plagued life began with her sister’s death 18 years ago, which in turn led to the suicide of their heartbroken father Paul seven years later.

‘We went on a holiday in 2005 to America. We went with four different families. And then we were taking a cruise ship to the Caribbean,’ she explained. 

‘It was about three days into the holiday, my sister fell overboard off a balcony.’

Ms O’Brien was 12 and her older sister Lynsey was 15 at the time. 

‘There was a bartender that was serving my parents, and he was off his shift. And then he asked my sister if she wanted to come to the nightclub,’ she said.

‘It’s over 21 in America. So he took two of them into the nightclub, which was the other family’s daughter, Carla. And she was 17, and Lynsey was 15. 

‘And then he served about 16 cocktails for my sister.’ 

Ms O’Brien moved back to Ireland in June

 Ms O’Brien recently shared details of her tragedy-struck life after her sister Lynsey’s death triggered the suicide of their heartbroken father Paul (pictured with Lynsey) seven years later

Mr O’Brien self-published a book about cruise ship safety. 

She revealed her father hadn’t noticed his daughter was missing until the barman brought her back, barely conscious after all the cocktails she had drunk.

‘He was just furious about her being drinking,’ said Ms O’Brien. ‘She couldn’t even stand. So then we went up to the room, and my dad put her to bed.’

Moments later Ms O’Brien saw her sister on the balcony of their room. 

‘I could see her swaying too much,’ she said. ‘So then I had to run out, grab her, but I couldn’t pull her back over, because obviously I was in 12, and she was 15. 

‘And then I had to let her go.’

It took the cruise ship two-and-a-half hours to turn around and launch the search and rescue. 

Lynsey’s body was never recovered and Ms O’Brien says the barman disembarked the ship in Mexico and was never questioned or charged. 

The death devastated her family and tortured her father. 

Mr O’Brien launched a campaign about cruise ship safety standards in the wake of the tragedy and self-published a book about it, ‘Lynsey’s Law: Coffin Cruise Ships and Obama’.

He never truly recovered from her death, and endured a ‘living nightmare’ until he took his own life in 2013, after a gruesome series of earlier attempts, witnessed by Ms O’Brien.

‘When you are younger, as a child you block a lot of things out,’ Ms O’Brien added. ‘People don’t realise trauma comes out later in life. 

‘I had four overdoses when I was 16, 17, 18 and 20.

‘For years I used to walk out on counsellors if I didn’t like them, and then I moved to Australia.’

Ms O’Brien headed Down Under in 2019, desperate for fresh start and initially found happiness from her thriving business and healthy lifestyle.

But she admits she was still tormented by her past.

‘I just hit rock bottom and, and then I ended up throwing myself off an 11 storey balcony,’ she said.   

Ms O’Brien spent five months in hospital after the accident and having almost fully recovered from her injuries returned to Ireland in June. 

‘I was in hospital,’ she admitted. ‘I was upstairs first, and then they put me into a mental institution afterwards.

‘I just wasn’t happy – you know when you’re just not happy in a place.

‘I should have went home earlier, but then I felt like home wasn’t the place either. But then now that I’m being back now, I feel like it is.’

For confidential crisis support please contact Lifeline  13 11 14