Virginia López Severiano died after she got stuck in an industrial food mixer, WTVD via Univision 40 reports.
The 44-year-old mother got stuck inside the machine and was later airlifted to a hospital where she died from her injuries. Per WRAL, she was at work cleaning the machine, which was used to make bread, at the time of the incident. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced that it plans to investigate what happened.
“[Responders] basically took the machine apart in order to get the woman out,” the Selma Fire Department told WNCN. Half of her body was inside of the machine when authorities responded to the incident. In a statement shared by Selma police, it was revealed that it took an hour to remove her from the bread-making machine.
“My mom is the best mother a girl could have,” said her daughter, Miriam Amado-Lopez, in a post on Facebook. “She taught me resilience, the importance of hard work, and she showed me what true love felt like. From a young age my mom did not have the easiest life. She started working at a young age to help support her family and eventually decided to travel hundreds of thousands of miles to try to give her family a better chance at a good life.”
She als0 described her mother as “kind, funny, silly, hard-working, beautiful, a provider, a nurturer, and the backbone of our family.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help raise funds for the family. “She was a very loved person by the community,” wrote the campaign’s organizer, Gerado Rodriguez. “Every single penny will be going directly to them.”
As of Thursday, the GoFundMe has already raised over $7,500, surpassing its initial $5,000 goal.
