AN Irish woman who suffered a horror brain injury after going without sufficient oxygen for 10 hours has told how she made a miracle recovery after her family turned off her life support. Hannah McGarvey, 28, began to feel “chesty” on November 3, 2023 and started coughing up phlegm. She fell asleep on the sofa at around midnight and while asleep went into cardiac arrest .
The following morning at 10am, Hannah’s mum, Helen, 59, came home after she was found unresponsive - performing CPR until the ambulance arrived. Hannah was blue-lighted to Causeway Hospital, Coleraine, Northern Ireland , where medics performed a CT scan which showed nothing abnormal. She was then transported to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast , where she had multiple MRI scans and an EEG - to record brain activity.
The results showed Hannah had a hypoxic brain injury - which usually forms due to a restriction on the oxygen being supplied to the brain. Doctors told Hannah’s family they had done everything they could and they should say their goodbyes. Once they turned the ventilator off, Hannah miraculously regained consciousness and went from “strength to strength” and was back up walking within a week.
I was really lucky that my mum started CPR when she did - they suspect my brain could have been without oxygen for 10 hours Hannah, an intensive care nurse, from Port Stewart, Northern Ireland, said: “I have been really lucky, I haven’t had any lasting health problems. “The thought is t.
