Mom Cleaned Through a 'Widowmaker' Heart Attack

A Mother’s Extraordinary Journey Through a Widowmaker Heart Attack

Jenna Tanner, a 49-year-old stay-at-home mom from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, has shared a deeply personal and surreal account of her near-death experience after surviving a “widowmaker” heart attack. What she initially thought was the flu turned out to be a life-threatening event that left her with a vivid, otherworldly vision during her fight for survival.

For several days, Jenna experienced symptoms such as breathlessness and chest pain, which she attributed to the flu that had recently affected her children. However, these symptoms escalated rapidly, leading to a sudden loss of consciousness and cardiac arrest. During the two hours she spent in this critical state, Jenna described an out-of-body experience that felt like floating through space.

“I remember just floating through this space—like a space universe—and I was getting closer to what I would describe as a nebula,” she recalled. “There was a big cloud of colors moving that were changing. Everything was vivid stars. I was just floating peacefully.”

This extraordinary vision, filled with stars and colorful nebulae, occurred while her body fought for survival after a massive heart attack. The incident, known as a “widowmaker” heart attack, happens when the left anterior descending artery becomes completely blocked. This type of event has a survival rate of only 12% when it occurs outside a hospital setting.

At the time of the attack, Jenna was alone at home, having sent a text to her husband, Ryan, about possibly feeling unwell. Instead of seeking medical attention, she focused on cleaning her house. As she walked into her home office, her blood pressure dropped, and she collapsed onto the floor.

When she regained awareness, she described being “shot back towards my body” through a “tube of lightning” before seeing her own body on the floor. She then returned to her body with intense pain, realizing immediately that she was having a heart attack.

With her phone in another room, Jenna spent approximately two hours drifting in and out of consciousness. During moments of clarity, she reflected on her life, focusing on the positive connections she had made rather than any negative experiences.

“It wasn’t once did I remember or relive any bad parts of life,” she said. “Everything that I thought about was the connections I had made with people or places while I was alive.”

The thought of her youngest son, Brady, returning from school to find her dead motivated her to crawl to her phone. After calling her husband and then 911, she managed to unlock her front door before collapsing as first responders arrived.

Upon reaching the hospital, the severity of her condition became evident when medical staff fell silent upon viewing the first image of her heart. Her cardiologist later told her with tears in his eyes, “In a 20-year career and over 4,000 surgeries, I’ve never seen anything like this. I didn’t even know people could survive this.”

Jenna credited the quick response of the fire department, who arrived within 13 minutes—a record time. She was later invited to their awards banquet the following year for their efforts.

Her entire left heart had shut down, and doctors still cannot explain how she survived with only the right side functioning. They placed a pump in her heart and inserted a stent in her main artery, a procedure typically requiring bypass surgery.

After ten days in the hospital, including six in intensive care, Jenna walked out without needing a walker or rehabilitation. However, her recovery journey included significant challenges, such as adapting to 13 new medications, gaining 40 pounds, and battling PTSD.

“I went months without even being able to leave my house. I was scared to be too far away from the fire department,” she recalled.

Today, Jenna has lost 40 pounds through lifestyle changes and works out daily in a home gym she built with her husband. She is currently writing a memoir about her experience.

“I know something happened to me,” she reflected. “Life is really good right now, thankfully.”