Texas beauty queen suffered near-fatal cardiac arrest on football field - after doctors first dismissed her as 'dramatic hypochondriac'

EXCLUSIVE Texas beauty queen suffered near-fatal cardiac arrest on football field - after doctors first dismissed her as 'dramatic hypochondriac' READ MORE: Why ARE so many young people having heart attacks? By Emily Joshu Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 16:26, 1 June 2024 | Updated: 14:22, 3 June 2024 e-mail 416 shares 221 View comments Chloe Burke has always felt her most relaxed on a football field. A keen athlete all her life, the Texas native thrived as a D1 collegiate cheerleader at the University of Houston — never missing a game.

Then, one day in 2019, while mid-routine at a game, the then 21-year-old collapsed to the ground. 'Everything went black,' Ms Burke, now 25, told DailyMail.com.

Tests would later reveal that she'd suffered a freak cardiac arrest. There was no history of heart troubles in the family. What followed was a frantic rush to save her life , involving three electric shocks to restart the organ and, ultimately, brutal open heart surgery, in which doctors were forced to crack open her chest and split her breastbone down the middle to access the heart.

Chloe Burke went into cardiac arrest at 21 years old while cheering at the University of Houston. She is now educating others about cardiac arrest as she competes for Miss Texas Ms Burke was born with the heart condition myocardial bridging, though she did not know until she suffered a cardiac arrest. She had open heart surgery and spent four months in rehab Despite a painstaking recovery i.