Lucky are those who have been able to come back from the afterlife. Shortly after 27 minutes of unconsciousness, Tina Hines is finally coming around in the hospital. Her husband, Brian, is convinced that the heart attack Tina suffered almost killed her. In fact, it was touch-and-go as to whether she would wake up again.
Then, Tina requests a pen and paper, and what she scribbles down after being on the verge of death is enough to give anyone goosebumps. Long before the incident happened, the two were college sweethearts, having first met at California’s Biola University, where they shared two classes. From there, Brian and Tina’s relationship progressed quickly and seemingly with ease. They eventually got married, had four children, and settled in Phoenix, Arizona.
It was just like any normal Monday, Brian told Phoenix’s American Heart Association. The day the couple had been out for a hike before Jeff called in to see them. Then, shortly after their friend arrived, disaster struck.
“When I got to their home, Tina and I were standing shoulder to shoulder one second,” Jeff later recalled. “The next second, Tina had fallen face-forward into the rocks.” Realizing something was seriously wrong, Jeff yelled to Brian to call 911.
The emergency call handler instructed Brian that Tina needed chest compressions. Describing what happened next, Brian told Phoenix’s American Heart Association: “Jeff immediately started to push down on Tina’s chest. Neither one of us had any training at all.” Given the physical effort that CPR requires, Jeff soon tired. Ultimately, it fell to a distraught Brian to try and save his wife’s life. He continued pushing as hard as he could until the fire service personnel arrived at the scene. They took over, and all the concerned husband could do was watch as the firefighter tried to save his wife’s life.
In all, the crew gave Tina five electric shocks on the way to the hospital in a desperate bid to kick-start her heart. According to firefighter Joe Sandman, it was Brian’s actions that prevented Tina from dying on the sidewalk outside her home. In that desperate moment, the husband and father turned to God, recalling his prayers. Brian claimed that he tried to make a deal with God: “I told God that if he gave me Tina back, then he could take anything else… all our cars, all my stuff. I don’t need that stuff. I needed Tina.”
It seemed that Brian’s prayers may have been answered. After he arrived at the hospital, a doctor told him that his wife was alive. For Brian, Tina’s survival was nothing short of a miracle. He truly believed that God had granted him his wish. While unconscious, Tina witnessed something she later reported to her spouse.
As Tina lay lifeless for 27 minutes, she believed she had an afterlife experience. The Arizona mom wasn’t the first person to claim to have seen something beyond this realm while on the cusp of death. Some individuals who have since been brought back to life have reported observing bright lights or frightening creatures during their periods of unconsciousness.
As Tina was revived time and time again by emergency services, her distraught husband had no idea she was having one of those afterlife experiences. Tina came round and was seemingly in a hurry to pass on a message to her family. Incapable of voicing her thoughts out loud due to intubation, Tina was handed a pen and paper. In an almost unintelligible scrawl, she simply wrote, “It’s real.” Confused, her family members asked what she was referring to, and she pointed upwards, signifying heaven.
For Tina, there’s little doubt that what she saw that day was a piece of heaven. She described a bright, yellow light almost like the vision of the sun, telling Good Morning Arizona that she saw Jesus within those golden rays. Tina’s vision has made both her and Brian convinced it was God’s will to save her, and the couple has discovered a new appreciation of life.
Since then, Tina and Brian have become spokespeople for the American Heart Association. Their story gained viral fame due to Tina’s apparent afterlife experience. Despite their faith, Tina and Brian acknowledged that others also helped save her life. The couple made sure to visit the 911 call handler and the firefighters who assisted that fateful day, expressing gratitude to each individual.
At least one firefighter who helped Tina after her heart attack believed a higher power intervened to ensure her survival. “It’s one of those calls that none of us will ever forget,” a firefighter told Good Morning Arizona. “I was a witness to a miracle, that’s how I look at it.”
For Tina, there was one more person she had to thank for saving her life: her husband of three decades, Brian, who administered the CPR that kept her heart beating. Her grateful words to the American Heart Association: “In those moments, if I’d been alone, everything could have been different.”
