Eight minutes of death brings new life
Diane Straube's health crisis was averted with help from the teams at Methodist Hospital's Atascosa and Metropolitan.
Thursday, May 18, 2023, was just another day for most people. For Diane Straube, 65, it was the day she died for eight minutes.
Diane Straube hadn’t been feeling well since being discharged from a severe infection acquired after knee replacement surgery. She thought her infection may have returned and told her husband she didn’t feel “normal.” They decided to get her to the emergency room at Methodist Hospital Atascosa. After dropping Straube off, her husband went to park the car, not knowing that she would soon be in full cardiac arrest before he could make it to the waiting room.
As the nurse was putting in an IV, she told Diane that she was in the right place for that and told her to lay back. That’s all she remembers.
Diane woke up in a room with many people and in a lot of pain, due to cracked ribs, she suffered from the chest compressions she received when caregivers administered CPR. She had no idea what had happened to her. She was transferred to intensive care where she learned she had had a heart attack and that her heart was functioning at 35 percent with 95 percent blockage. This puzzled her and her family because she had a full cardiovascular checkup a couple of months before, and there were no signs of any problems. On the following day, she was on a helicopter to Methodist Hospital Metropolitan in San Antonio.
Diane quickly underwent a heart catheterization and had three stents placed in her heart. It wasn’t until Monday, May 22, that a cardiologist at Methodist Hospital Metropolitan told Diane that her heart had stopped for eight minutes. The cardiologist asked Diane if she remembered anything about that time, like maybe a white light. Diane said, “Yeah, my mom was there.”
Straube’s son, Austin Straube, who also works for Methodist Hospital Atascosa, was with Diane throughout her recovery.
“I think it’s what our mission/value statement stands for — it is what we live every day. It just truly shows in our interactions with every level of staff — like a family, everyone always smiled.”
Diane states this brought her a new outlook on life that she never imagined for herself.
“I don’t take anything for granted as I know God’s not finished with me yet,” said Straube. “Family and my health takes on a whole new meaning.”