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DRAPER — Terrifying video captured the near-death experience of a Salt Lake County woman years ago.
The woman is still looking for the man who saved her life so she can say thank you.
On a Draper playground a little more than four years ago, Maria Forbes’ life took a turn for the worse. She was on a piece of equipment that spun around like a top when she got tangled in some rope.
“They had a rope wrapped at the base of it and then they would pull it so it would spin like a top,” Forbes said. “I remember it starting to spin then I was just out.”
Tangled in the ropes and unconscious, Forbes’ friend shot video of the moment on July 15, 2012, on the ride that nearly took her life. Her friend stopped recording as soon she realized how serious of a situation it was.
“All the blood went to my head and my face was bleeding out of my pores,” Forbes said.
At the hospital, doctors told her she was lucky. If she had been spinning much longer, she likely would have died. She says a stranger saved her life.
“He literally stopped it at the perfect second for me to still be alive and walking and talking,” Forbes said.
In the last four years, Forbes said she's done a lot.
“I graduated. I’ve done hair and makeup for short films,” she said.
She also became a mother and made a lot of memories with her family, memories that wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the stranger who saved her.
“I feel bad that I’ve never been able to thank him for just what may seem tiny to him but it was huge to me,” she said.
Forbes said the day after the accident, they removed that piece of equipment from Draper Park.
