A woman who ‘died’ twice has issued a warning after her fainting episodes were blamed on ‘stress’ by doctors.
Cecilia Wichmann began experiencing ‘random’ fainting episodes back in May 2017 as she explained she could just be standing up and chatting before suddenly collapsing.
"I went to the ER every time and they always said 'it's stress or depression'. [They were] excuses for not knowing what was going on. It was never investigated what actually happened,” the woman from Wills Point, Texas, explained.
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"There wasn't anything I could connect to stress."
However, the now 45-year-old ended up having a brush with death when she collapsed while on the phone to a friend – who she now credits with ‘saving her life’.
The pair were just ‘catching up and laughing’ as Wichmann wandered about her home on the call.
"I wasn't dizzy, I wasn't warm or cold and I didn't have any pain anywhere. There was nothing that could have pointed to what was about to happen,” she explained.
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But then she suddenly collapsed as her friend said she ‘disappeared’ while talking mid-sentence.
“She called the sheriff department and said to them 'I have her on the line and can hear she is breathing in some way but she's not responding to me',” Wichamnn said.
Luckily her door was open and responders could see her laying on the floor, they performed CPR for 10 minutes before rushing her to hospital.
The woman ended up there for 10 days while baffled doctors couldn’t determine a cause.
She then experienced a second cardiac arrest in March 2018 while waiting in hospital to get her pacemaker fitted.
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With her heart stopping for a minute, Wichmann felt lucky to be alive and encouraged to find her ‘purpose’.
"What is it that God wants me to do on this planet Earth that keeps me here? It's got to be something,” she said.
"It was a strength for me to know that now I had a pacemaker, I was grateful for getting that little piece of equipment."
With doctors still unsure what triggers her fainting episodes, she was diagnosed with Postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) in 2019.
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This sees a person's heart rate increase quickly after getting up from sitting or lying down.
And her brushes with death ended up inspiring her to become an emergency medical technician (EMT) and ‘give back’.
Now, Wichmann is urging others to learn CPR as she warns of the consequences of not being able to perform it.
"[My cardiac arrests] inspired me. It was nothing that I had in mind before the first cardiac arrest. It's my way of giving back, I'm honoured to be able to do this job,” she said.
"I don't take tomorrow for granted, I try to live every day to the fullest and not just wait.
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"Get to know your CPR. If it wasn't or the officer that knew what to do, I would probably not be here. I thank him everyday for being here as well.
"You will probably never use it but you can be anywhere at any time and if somebody goes down you need to know what to do."
Topics: Health
Jess Battison