Liv Bridge
A woman who 'died for 17 minutes' after a workout has revealed what she saw before being resuscitated.
Sports enthusiast Victoria Thomas from Gloucester, UK, says she was in the middle of a boot camp session at the gym when she suddenly felt unwell.
After the weightlifting session, she recalled how she felt like all her energy 'just drained from my body,' adding: "I was also feeling slightly dizzy."
The then 35-year-old said she'd only just uttered feeling ill to her friend when she 'suddenly collapsed on the floor,' reports The Mirror.
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It quickly transpired the accountant had gone into cardiac arrest and as paramedics descended on the scene and performed life-saving CPR, panic set in as Victoria's heart stopped beating.
Now, she's revealed what she saw in that horrifying moment between life and death, describing how her world 'went black and there was nothing'.
"Then I became aware of looking down on my body," she continued. "I was floating near the roof and was looking down at myself on the gym floor."
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“I didn’t see a light, or feel peaceful, I was just watching myself, and I could see some yellow machines around me," Victoria added.
After an agonizing 17 minutes, emergency services managed to help Victoria's heart spring back into action.
"They never gave up on me," the now 41-year-old mom said. "The minutes ticked by, but they refused to stop trying. I was so young, fit and healthy and it had come completely out of the blue.”
After she was resuscitated, she spent three days in a coma and was fitted with a defibrillator in case she went back into cardiac arrest again.
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However, it wasn't the end of her health troubles as her heart stopped several times in the months that followed, with the defib kicking her heart back to life every time.
Victoria, who has no known family history of heart problems, credits the medical device for continually saving her life and allowing her to 'carry on living' normally.
"I went back to playing netball three weeks after it happened, with my defibrillator," she said. "It was a shock whenever it went off, but it allowed me to carry on living my normal life, which I was so grateful for.”
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When she became pregnant in 2021, her heart was under more strain and she said she went into cardiac arrest 'regularly'.
Eventually, while 24 weeks pregnant, doctors finally diagnosed her with Danon disease, a rare genetic disorder, which meant she had to deliver her baby boy, Tommy, via an emergency caesarean at 30 weeks.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the condition is inherited and can damage the heart, muscles, retina and brain, though Victoria is the first in her family to have been diagnosed.
Fortunately, her baby boy is fine and healthy, but Victoria's heart has taken a toll since her pregnancy, with a check up in 2022 revealing it was functioning at just 11 percent, usually an indicator of end-of-life heart failure.
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“I asked the doctors how long I had left and they told me I had just another couple of months.
"It was devastating. All I could think of was Tommy. I vowed I wouldn’t leave him," she said.
Miraculously, Victoria then had a successful heart transplant in April 2023, and now plans on competing in both volleyball and basketball at the World Transplant Games in Germany.
Fortunately, tests on three-year-old Tommy have also put him 'in the clear', with no signs of him sharing Danon disease.
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Victoria concluded: "I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life, and to be a mum. It’s the greatest gift I could ever have asked for.”