Brian Hines’ world turned upside down on Feb. 12, 2018. His wife, Tina, was lying on the floor, unconscious and not breathing. The devastated husband immediately called 911 for help.
Brian reminisced the horror of seeing his wife’s unconscious body on the ground, “I’ve never seen anybody with their eyes rolled back and-and literally starting to turn purple.”
While he waited for paramedics to arrive, their neighbor, Jeff Logas, stopped by their house for his regular visit. The concerned neighbor immediately attempted to find a pulse and started CPR upon seeing the scene.
Brian remembered how Jeff’s initial resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful, “Jeff said, ‘Brian, I can’t do this. I’m not doing it right.’ And so, I put the phone down on the rocks, and I just start pushing on Tina, pushing on her chest in the middle of her chest, I was panicked.”
Jeff described Brian’s urgency, “It was – it was like a man giving every last breath that he had to try to get his wife back.”
Brian shared, “I thought she was dead.”
After first responders arrived at the house, they issued two doses of epinephrine and shocked her heart. Brian recalled them attempting to revive her heart multiple times, “They did it a third time, and I’m looking at them going, ‘Guys, is-is her heart beating? Can you get her heart to beat? Please God, please make her heartbeat.’”
Unable to get a heartbeat from Tina, the paramedics rushed her to Deer Valley Medical Center. By the time they arrived at the ER, Tina was without any signs of life for over 20 minutes.
“In my mind, I knew she was dead. There was nothing,” neighbor Jeff Logas shared.
Family members and friends joined Brian in the hospital waiting room to pray for Tina.
“It was a prayer of desperation. I said, ‘God, take everything from my life if you give me back Tina,’” Brian shared of his pleas to God.
Moments after that, Tina was alive.
Brian described the incredible moment of relief, “The doctor explained, ‘We defibrillated her one-one more time in the ER, and she came back. But there was probably 27-28 minutes with limited or no oxygen. We don’t know what happened. We’re going to induce a coma to allow her body to relax while we’re doing all these tests to try to figure out what happened.’”
The doctor emphasized that most people don’t survive for longer than ten minutes without oxygen to their brain. Tina’s miracle was not only that she survived after 30 minutes without oxygen to her brain but also that she had no lasting brain injuries that would leave her handicapped.
“I mean, she’s vented, the thing’s breathing for her. She’s got all these tubes on her. And your eyes just immediately go to that monitor, watching the heart rate thing, the chart and hearing the beeping and seeing the numbers. It was crazy. But I had to be happy too that at least she is alive,” Brian described the moment he walked into his wife’s hospital room.
Their friends and family continued to pray and cry out to God in the waiting room. The following day, Tina’s vitals were restored, her consciousness regained, and she could breathe independently without the ventilator.
Her brother-in-law, Dave, described how he placed a pen in her hand and held up a notepad for her to write, “And she just started making marks, and I couldn’t tell what it was, and I was almost shaking. I was fixed. I just held the book steady because I didn’t want it to drop.”
Brian stated that she wrote an interesting message, “We figured out that she wrote I-T-S-R-E-A-L. ‘What’s it’s real?’ And I go, ‘The pain? The hospital?’ She’s slowly nodding your head. Eyes are closed. She’s fully vented. She’s moving all this. No, and then my daughter goes, ‘Heaven?’ And she goes – she nods yes.”
Dave recollected, “And as soon as someone said Jesus, a peace came across her.”
Brian took a breath of relief and looked at his brother-in-law, “I just looked at Dave and said, ‘She’s going to be just fine.’”
The doctor predicted that she might not have the ability to talk for a while. Still, Tina started speaking instantly, “I just wanted to share that I saw Jesus face to face and the unbelievable rest and peacefulness of what I was experiencing was Jesus standing there with His arms open wide, and right behind Jesus standing there was this incredible glow it was the most vibrant and beautiful yellow.”
Four days after cardiac arrest, Tina was discharged from the hospital and returned home without any brain injuries.
Currently, Tina is training for a half marathon and living her life to the fullest. God’s mercy and healing power are genuinely incredible. Just like the Bible assures us, He hears our prayers and answers them.
“God is real in my life. Jesus is real. Heaven is real. I know that God can use every situation to make us who we are in Christ,” Tina proclaimed the greatness of Jesus Christ.