A woman from Phoenix, Arizona suddenly went into cardiac arrest just before embarking with her husband on a hike—and it turned out to be a roundtrip ticket to heaven.
Tina Hines, mother-of-four, had always been a healthy outdoor person, eating a balanced diet, with no history of heart problems. She and her husband Brian were getting ready to take a hike near their home one morning in February when she suddenly collapsed.
Brian called 911, then fell to his knees to perform CPR on his wife as he saw her face turning purple, he told AZfamily.com.
“Her eyes didn’t close, and they were rolled back in her head. She was purple and not making any noise or breathing,” he said.
He managed to resuscitate her before emergency responders arrived and took over. Then she had to be resuscitated another time—and yet another before she was rushed to the hospital.
On her way to the hospital, Tina’s heart stopped two more times. In total, she had to be revived six times over an approximately 27-minute period, in which she had been technically dead.
When she reached the hospital, she awoke. As she had a tube down her throat and couldn’t speak, she gestured for a pen and paper. When her family granted her request, she scribbled on it: “It’s real.” She was asked, “What’s real?” and she nodded upward to heaven.
“It was so real, the colors were so vibrant,” Tina told AZfamily.com.
She said she saw a figure she believes was Jesus standing before heaven’s gates, with a bright golden light shining from them.
This is too much ????
“Tina Hines, who could barely speak, reached out for the notebook and immediately scribbled down a message.”https://t.co/S8HpSLCTbG
— Metro (@MetroUK) June 25, 2019
A few weeks after her release from the hospital, she and Brian went back to the 911 operator and the first responders who saved her life. Hugs and tears were exchanged.
“We ended up shocking her three times on scene and two en route,” said one Phoenix firefighter. “I’ve never shocked anyone five times.”
“It’s one of those calls that none of us will ever forget,” said another rescuer. “I was a witness to a miracle is the way I look at it.”
Tina is fortunate to be alive today to share her amazing story.
Only about ten percent of the people who suffer cardiac arrest while not in a hospital survive. In those cases, it’s mostly due to the CPR skills of someone nearby that makes the difference between life and death.
About 10 to 20 percent of these people experience lucid, clear visions while they’re technically dead. Researchers call this a near-death experience, or “NDE.”
Research at the University of Michigan in 2013 found that a surge of activity in the brain just before death is higher than during most waking, conscious states, according to a report by the BBC.
Scientists say this surge of activity is surprisingly robust and could account for the visions and experiences people have when in the state of near-death.
For Tina and her family, however, the visions Tina had were simply real. Madie Johnson, Tina’s niece, even had her aunt’s message tattooed on her wrist as a memento of her own conviction—that heaven is indeed real.
