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A 14-year-old Russian model collapsed and died after a gruelling 13-hour Asian fashion show in Shanghai, China.
Reports said Vlada Dzyuba died due to “utter exhaustion” and chronic meningitis.
According to Mail Online, Dzyuba, who was in China for during a three-month assignment, fell into a coma moments before she was due to step out for the latest of many appearances on the catwalk.
She never regained consciousness, dying two days later, according to reports.
It is claimed that the youngster was on a ‘slave labour’ contract without medical insurance and had been too “scared” to seek hospital treatment.
Officially she was permitted to work only three hours a week and was required to have medical insurance.
Her tragic case has raised concerns over the punishing conditions for young models desperate to make it to the big time, and the way they can be harshly exploited.
A rising flow of young Russian models are recruited to China.
The Express Tribune reports that Moscow is to demand explanations over the conditions in which Miss Dzyuba was kept in Shanghai, after she was recruited on a contract which involved her missing school in her home city Perm, in the Urals.
She had been prominent at this month’s prestigious Shanghai Fashion Week. The girl’s temperature soared as she was about the go on the catwalk, it has emerged.
Minutes later she collapsed and was unconscious, reported The Siberian Times. An ambulance was called but she died on Friday after two days in a coma. ‘The preliminary cause of death is meningitis compounded by severe exhaustion.
Her distraught mother Oksana wept: “She was calling me, saying ”Mama, I am so tired. I so much want to sleep’. I didn’t sleep myself and was calling her constantly, begging her to go to a hospital.”