An American woman in her sixth month fell into a 50-meter ravine in Crete. Neither the expectant mother nor the child survived

Clara Thomannová was in Greece at the end of last year with her boyfriend Elliot. It was supposed to be the last vacation for the two of them before their son Theodor was born.

The day before Christmas Eve, the couple went on a hiking trip along the south coast of the island near the village of Plakias. During the hike, they still managed to post photos on social networks. One of them shows Clara sitting on a stone wall with her hands on her bare stomach. It was her last pictures in her life.

Near the local monastery, Clara suddenly lost her balance and fell 50 meters down a cliff. The ravine was so difficult to access that 21 firefighters and other rescuers rescued it under dramatic circumstances for long hours until night.

While the child in the mother’s belly did not survive the fall, the woman suffered serious head and chest injuries, as well as multiple fractures, according to GreekReporter. She fought for her life in the intensive care unit for several days.

Three days before New Year’s Eve, however, the doctors told her partner and family, who had traveled to Crete in the meantime, that the patient had brain death and that they would disconnect her from the devices.

Clara, who worked as a physics teacher in Santa Barbara, California, was registered as a potential organ donor in her home country. After consultation with the family, Greek doctors in the city of Chania in Crete took advantage of this and removed the woman’s liver, kidneys, heart, pancreas and cornea.

All organs were received by patients in Greece. “The management of the General Hospital of Chania expresses its deep and sincere condolences to the family of the donor and bows before the greatness of her soul,” the clinic said in a statement.

“Clara liked to help others. She was a registered organ donor and we are happy that her heart, kidneys, liver and pancreas have already been accepted for transplantation,” the family wrote on the CaringBridge social network.