Daiane Silva was put into a medically induced coma this past September after suffering from kidney failure during a difficult weight cut. The Brazilian was set to make her Bellator debut on short notice in London, England which would have seen her compete at featherweight for the first time in her career.
It was a long time before this news was made public with many questioning why there wasn’t any health updates coming from the PFL at this time. Donn Davis stated when talking publicly about it for the first time that the promotion made the decision to not put out any statements regarding Silva’s current state out of respect for her family who wanted privacy.
This was recently backed up by Silva’s manager, Alex Davis, who spoke in a recent interview with MMA Fighting about the initial reaction to the situation and how the staff at the promotion worked quickly and effectively to support their fighter.
“It’s very scary,” Davis said. “Daiane and her family all through the process, they didn’t want anything divulged in the media.
“I’m just going to as far as I can go on the medical side — as soon as it happens, Bellator did a very good job. They found out they had a problem, they got a doctor on it. When the doctor saw how serious it was, they got her to the ambulance. They got her to the hospital. If they hadn’t acted [as quickly], mainly Eduardo [Lima], who works for PFL and Bellator during the event, if they had not acted that fast, it could have been a different outcome.”
Davis didn’t find out about Silva’s issues until he woke up the following morning to messages about her being in hospital due to the time difference. He has never experienced anything like this during his time as a veteran manager but through communication with the hospital, Silva’s family, loved ones, coaches and the promotion, they were able to support her.
“We had a group of people working, everybody’s on top of this,” Davis said. “She had an angel, a friend of hers, who was an angel in her life, stayed beside her through thick and thin and is still beside her.
“It seemed like we were going to have to put her in an ambulance plane with a doctor and a nurse to send her back to Brazil. Mike Kogan, Eduardo from Bellator, they never blinked an eye. They said whatever she needs. Whatever is needed. You can only imagine what that would cost but they never blinked.”
The latest update on Silva’s condition was that she had returned to Brazil where she was being treated in a support facility where she was showing promising signs of recovery. Davis stated that a GoFundMe page may be set-up in the near future in order to help the 29-year old fighter fund her medical care.
“Amazingly, she started getting better,” Davis said. “She started showing improvement. Slow improvement with this angel beside her. When you have a situation like this, they start bringing her out of the coma but it’s not like you turn on a switch and she wakes up. No, it happens slowly. She’s coming back slowly and it’s important to have someone there talking and stimulating her. That’s how that process happened.
“She started getting up. She started talking. She was intubated and they managed to take her tubes out and then it was up and up and up. We’re still going up, but she’s not playing basketball yet. There’s still a long road to go until she’s fully healed.”