MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unidentified Brazilian woman dies after 24 years in a coma

Clarinha died of bronchial aspiration on Thursday, but the news broke on Friday

A mysterious woman who spent the last 24 years in a coma after a hit-and-run car accident in downtown Vitória, in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo, has died of bronchial aspiration, it was reported Friday.

Her identity was never established after she was rescued by an ambulance unconscious and without papers on June 12, 2000. Doctors at the Military Police Hospital (HPM) where she was taken called her Clarinha. Her case gained notoriety after a television report in 2016. No family or friends ever visited her.

Doctor Jorge Potratz chose the name Clarinha in 2016: “We had to call her something. The name 'unidentified' is too complicated to say. Since she's white, we called her Clarinha.”

The team considered the patient's coma high. “We classify coma on a scale of three to fifteen points. Fifteen is when the patient is awake and lucid, and three is the deepest coma. She's not communicating with us, so we consider her to be in a seven to eight coma,” Potratz explained at the time.

The retired colonel doctor also admitted that he was saddened by the fact that he was never able to solve Clarinha's mystery and find her next of kin. “It is very sad to have this outcome, but we must remember that God has a purpose. I'll understand all this in the future. This end is sad.”

Clarinha had signs of having undergone a C-section, which would indicate that she had at least one child. She was believed to be around 45 years old.

According to local media, HPM workers who had cared for Clarinha over the years were making arrangements to give her a more dignified funeral, unlike the unfortunate homeless and nameless people who live on the streets of every major city in Latin America.

After the report aired on Fantástico TV, more than 100 families contacted the Public Prosecutor's Office to identify Clarinha as a missing relative. However, all DNA tests came back negative.