David Mills

A Santa Cruz native who has been living in Brazil off-and-on for several years is slowly recovering in a hospital there after a mysterious New Year’s Day incident at the Rio de Janeiro airport, relatives and friends confirmed Wednesday.

David Mills, 23, a longtime student of the Brazilian form of jujitsu, fractured his skull, ribs and one of his femurs after tumbling an estimated 30 feet to the concrete somewhere inside the Galeao-Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport in South America’s second largest city, family said.

Mills’ left lung collapsed and there was swelling on his brain, leading doctors at the Hospital Municipal Souza Aguiar to place him in an induced coma to speed his healing, said his sister, Bethany Mills of Castro Valley. Mills has partially regained consciousness in recent days, briefly opening his eyes and acknowledging that others are present, she said.

The sister said it is still unclear to the family exactly what happened at the airport or why her brother was there. She said Mills, who teaches English in Rio, had no known travel plans, was not carrying his passport and was not believed to be meeting an arriving passenger.

Friends and family have not been able to ascertain from authorities what led to the incident - an uncertainty exacerbated by a language barrier. Portuguese is the native language in Brazil.

It’s unclear how much Mills’ girlfriend, a Brazilian citizen, knows about what happened. Mills’ sister said she does not believe the woman was with Mills at the airport.

“It’s a complete mystery,” the sister, 27, said. “We have no idea. We’re all confused.”

She and her parents were notified about the incident over the weekend by another relative who had learned of Mills’ hospitalization from a blog posting by Dennis Asche, an American professional jujitsu fighter also living in Rio.

Asche - a Bend, Ore., native who, like Mills, lives in Brazil to train in the martial art - has frequently visited Mills in the hospital but said in a series of e-mails this week that he has been unable to learn what led to the incident. He said authorities had a hard time reaching the Mills family because David Mills’ cell phone was stolen or lost during the incident.

Marcio Dark, research coordinator for the Rio bureau of the International Council on Security and Development, a global security watchdog agency, said an airport official told him Mills jumped, not fell, from an upper floor of the airport.

Dark said an airport medical service officer told him that “apparently (Mills) jumped after some sort of disagreement with a person, maybe his girlfriend.” Dark cautioned that the officer said he had no firsthand knowledge about the incident, only information that had circulated in the medical services office.

In an e-mail Wednesday, Asche said, “I do not buy that story (from police.) Dave is a very strong, healthy individual with a positive attitude and loving fiancee.”

Mills’ mother arrived at the hospital earlier this week, but could not be reached to comment. His father lives in Santa Cruz, but did not immediately return a message left with his daughter.

Mills’ sister said she had heard there was a possibility her brother had jumped into a secure part of the airport where he did not have authorized access. But she said she could not confirm the story, adding, “It would be unlike him to do that.”

The sister said her brother had no known psychological problems but was taking antibiotics for pneumonia stemming from an infection he contracted when he scraped his arm a few weeks ago. She said the infection had spread to his lung, causing him sleeping and breathing disturbances.

“I just have to keep thinking positively,” the sister said. “He is in good physical condition, mind and body. He is a trooper.”

His sister said Mills was home-schooled in Santa Cruz before attending Santa Cruz High School briefly and graduating early. He took a few classes at Cabrillo College before heading off to Brazil, where she said he hoped to eventually earn his black belt in jujitsu.

Mills has been studying the martial art since he was about 13, his sister said. He trained at the Claudio Franca dojo in Santa Cruz.

Contact J.M. Brown at 429-2410 or jbrown@santacruzentinel.com.