LIVERPOOL MOTHER SURVIVES 40FT FALL FROM PARIS BALCONY WHILE SLEEPWALKING

Raina Heverin, 44, from Liverpool, survived a fall from a second-storey Juliet balcony in Paris on 26 April 2025 whilst on holiday with her brother and sister-in-law. She fell approximately 40ft into a courtyard below the townhouse where they were staying. Heverin remained unconscious for three weeks following the fall and sustained extensive injuries including a bleed on the brain, a punctured lung, a broken hip, arm and ribs. She has since been left with a life-changing brain injury as a result of the incident.

Heverin had swapped bedrooms with her brother and sister-in-law after complaining that traffic outside her original room had prevented her from sleeping. The quieter bedroom at the back of the property featured a Juliet balcony. She retired to the room after a day of sightseeing around Paris but remembers nothing of the fall and believes she was sleepwalking when it occurred. Her brother discovered her missing at 6am when he noticed the bedroom door was open and the window ajar; her shoes remained inside the room. He found Heverin lying motionless in the courtyard below, and a neighbour assisted in calling an ambulance.

Prior to the fall, Heverin was an active mother of two children, Cian, 10, and Aliyah, eight, and ran two businesses whilst exercising daily. She regularly ran 10km, cycled, lifted weights and attended fitness classes. Heverin stated that had she not been discovered when she was, she would not have survived the incident.