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After Miss Jamaica Gabrielle Henry was hospitalized after a fall from the Miss Universe pageant stage, one Miss Universe contestant is speaking out about why she believes the moment was mishandled by pageants staff
Melissa Sapini, who was in Thailand competing on behalf of Haiti, is speaking out, revealing what pageant contestants were told in the wake of Henry’s fall
“I don’t know that they handled that correctly,” she tells PEOPLE
A Miss Universe contestant is shedding more light on the numerous viral and controversial moments that occurred in the days leading up to the pageant.
In a shocking moment from the pageant’s preliminary round, Miss Jamaica Gabrielle Henry can be seen falling from a stage as she walks in her orange evening gown. Moments after the fall, Henry was seen in videos being removed from the competition arena on a stretcher. She remains in the hospital, a week later.
Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, Miss Haiti Melissa Sapini shares more details about the aftermath of the shocking fall and how leadership addressed the incident with contestants.
Sapini, 22, alleges that after the fall, pageant contestants were called together for a meeting, where she claims a pageant staff member started the conversation by placing blame on Henry.
“I don’t know that they handled that correctly,” she tells PEOPLE. “The first thing he said was it’s because she wasn’t paying attention.”
Mohan Raj/Getty
Gabrielle Henry.
“After he said that, then he was like, ‘Of course, safety is our number one priority,’ this, that,” she clarifies. “But it’s like, ‘Are you serious?’ That was really scary.”
The Miss Universe Organization has not responded to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.
Many moments throughout the pageant, including this one, took a toll on Sapini and her fellow contestants.
“There was so many little things,” she recalls. “I’ll never forget it was before [the pageant] — because we had a day in between prelims and finals — just sitting in my room with my roommate… our only downtime, which we did not have a lot of, and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Is this it?’ We’re looking at each other. We’re looking at these articles, and we’re not even talking.”
“We’re just looking at each other with our faces drained,” she explains. “And you just see dreams and hopes lost. That’s so sad to me.”
Ricardo Saint-Cyr
Melissa Sapini.
In the days that followed Henry’s shocking fall, Raul Rocha, the owner of the Miss Universe pageant, took to his Instagram to provide an update on her status.
“I would like to share with the Miss Universe family that are concerned for the health of our Miss Universe Jamaica that at 12:00 a.m. Bangkok time, that I have just left the hospital where she is being treated,” he wrote in text over a black screen posted to his Instagram feed. “I was there with her family and her, and thankfully, there are no broken bones and she is under good care.”
After she was notably absent from the competition’s finale, an update from the Miss Universe Jamaica Organization sent to PEOPLE explained that Henry’s sister, Dr. Phylicia Henry-Samuels, is currently with Henry and their mother, Maureen Henry, in Thailand.
Because of her condition, medical personnel have determined that Henry will be required to remain in the intensive care unit (ICU) for a minimum of seven days as “doctors continue their close monitoring and specialized care,” Dr. Henry-Samuels said.
Read the original article on People