A 20-year-old woman, Jazmin Garza, was lifting weights when, all of a sudden, she collapsed to the floor and started having a seizure. She went into cardiac arrest multiple times and began to suffer organ failure. While she has recovered, the cause of her health incident and her subsequent "miraculous" recovery remains unknown.
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The whole incident took place in November 2024. Garza talked with the Daily Mail, recalling what happened during her workout.
"We were at the gym and were in the middle of a workout doing a single leg deadlift when all of a sudden I did not feel good," Garza said. Previously, Garza drank an energy drink, something she wasn't used to doing. "I hadn't been to the gym for a while and wanted to have a really good workout so had a third of an energy drink," she continued. "I hadn't had this type of energy drink before."
However, after she sat down, she fell ill and lightheaded. According to her boyfriend Isaac Ayala, who was working out with her at the time, she was also pale. That's when Garza fainted and started having a seizure. Isacc administered CPR until paramedics arrived.
While paramedics tried to restart her heart, Jazmin Garza went into cardiac arrest four times. Therefore, she had to be put in a life support machine on the way to the hospital. According to Isaac, who set up a GoFundMe to help cover Garza's medical expenses, she was put in an ECMO machine to keep her blood oxygenated. She also needed dialysis as her kidneys were failing.
After many procedures and after doctors placed a defibrillator in her chest, Garza woke up. However, when doctors tested her, they didn't find any cause for her sudden health incident. Two weeks later, Garza was fully recovered and was sent home.
A Miraculous Recovery
Garza still struggles to understand the nature of her illness and how it came to be. "Every day I started getting better and better. They would run a lot of tests on my heart and all the tests came out fine," she said. "They couldn't see any issues with my heart or why it happened or what might have caused it."
She stated that neither she nor her family have a history of heart issues. Garza believes that an underlying unknown condition might have triggered her seizure and subsequent cardiac arrests. While she also theorizes that the energy drink might have contributed, she still doesn't know what happened to her.
However, given her recovery, she feels grateful for what happened. Just like her, doctors are still trying to figure out how she was able to recover that quickly.
"Everything just happened at the perfect time for things to go perfectly wrong," Garza said. "I feel like I've had a second chance at life now. I want to do even better now. Doctors couldn't believe how I had survived it, they said this was a miracle. I was really close to death at one point. I feel so grateful to be alive."
