A 22-year-old woman from Northern Ireland survived seven cardiac arrests over an 11-day period.
Aoife Boyle of Eglinton comes from a family with no history of heart disease, according to the BBC.
Her ordeal began last month.
“Aoife was meeting her friends for lunch at a pub. They just got in through the door, they didn’t even make it to sit down, and the next thing she just collapsed and started taking seizures,” said Tanya Boyle, Aoife’s mother. “They rang me straight away, telling me to just get there quick.”
On that occasion, a friend of Boyle’s, who was a nurse, performed CPR.
But Aoife Boyle’s ordeal did not end there.
“Within 11 days she had seven cardiac arrests,” Tanya Boyle said.
“Five of them she stopped breathing, and they had to do CPR. Two of them they didn’t have to do CPR, but they had to sedate her to shock her to get the rhythm of her heart back,” she said.
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“When we got to Newcastle, we were told her heart function was between 10 and 20 percent,” Tanya Boyle said.
The family was told that Aoife Boyle may have caught a virus resulting in inflammation around the heart, as well as the buildup of excess fluid.
Tanya Boyle recalled one piece of the frightening ordeal, which led the medical staff to move her daughter to two different hospitals.
“I was on FaceTime to Aoife, and I just saw the phone fall, and I heard squealing and shouting for nurses,” she said.
Aoife Boyle said she did not remember much of what took place.
A healthy 22 year old collapsed during lunch with friends. She had seven cardiac arrests over 11 days.
She has no family history of heart conditions, and she was told she may have caught a virus resulting in inflammation and excess fluid around her heart. pic.twitter.com/s2CjYSUBIa
— Michael W Doyle (@Real_144k) February 21, 2023
“It was only when I got to Newcastle and I started on different medications. I would have my good and bad days, but then reality slowly started to hit,” she said.
“I wouldn’t have been an anxious person before but I got really anxious, I didn’t let mummy out of my sight. The cardiac arrests would mostly happen when I was asleep at night, so I was terrified to sleep,” she said.
Aoife Boyle commented on the change in her life.
“I was leading a normal life, started a new job and was living like any other 22-year-old, and then all of a sudden this happens,” she said, adding, “Life is far too short, that is the outlook you have to have when something like this happens.”
When a family friend posted a GofundMe appeal seeking £500, more than £12,000 was raised.
“I am a lucky lucky girl to get this far- Daddy was definitely looking over me,” she wrote in a message to supporters, according to Derry Now.
“A massive thank you to everyone for the messages and support through one of the most difficult times. I’ll be forever grateful. Still a long road ahead but slow and steady wins the race.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.