Luisel Ramos (born 12 April 1984 – August 2, 2006) was a Uruguayan model.
On August 2, 2006, at 9:15 p.m., Ramos died of heart failure caused by anorexia nervosa[1] while participating in a fashion show during Fashion Week in Montevideo, Uruguay. Ramos had felt ill after walking the runway and subsequently fainted on her way back to the dressing room. She died at the age of 22. Ramos's father told police that she had gone "several days" without eating. She was reported to have adopted a diet of lettuce and Diet Coke for the three months before her death.[2] At the time of her death she had a body mass index (BMI) of just 14.5. She weighed 44 kg (97 lbs) at a height of 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in).[3] The World Health Organization considers a BMI of around 16 to be starvation.[4]
In the wake of Ramos's death, the Madrid Fashion Week (held in September 2006) set a minimum BMI of 18 for all models.[2] In December that year, Italian fashion designers banned size zero models from walking down their catwalks.[5]
On February 13, 2007, Luisel's 18-year-old sister Eliana Ramos, also a model, died at her grandparents' home in Montevideo of an apparent heart attack,[6] believed to be related to malnutrition.[7]