Ana Clara Benevides Machado, a fan of Taylor Swift, passed away on November 17, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The cause of death has been identified.
Benevides passed away from heat exhaustion, per an autopsy report that The Associated Press was able to obtain.
The 23-year-old passed away in the hospital after collapsing in the front row while waiting for the show to start; no underlying medical issues were discovered. According to the study, she died from “cardiorespiratory arrest” and “serious compromise of her lungs and sudden death” brought on by the intense heat,Rio had temperatures above 100 degrees that day. While occupying prime front-of-stage positions, many fans had been waiting in the heat for extended periods of time with little opportunity to get water. Swift canceled her upcoming show because of the weather and asked security to bring water to the fans.
Following the incident, Swift wrote an impassioned homage to the victim on Instagram, expressing her profound grief over the death of “such a beautiful, young life.”
Swift remembered Benevides by singing the melancholy ballad Bigger Than The Whole Sky during her subsequent Rio concert. With the autopsy determining the cause of the fan’s untimely death, the heat may now be put to rest.
