To Death and Back
by Brad Feldman, KXMB TV
Posted on 3/6/2009
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Life is precious.
You can be feeling fine one minute..the next fighting just to live another day. If everyone deserves a second chance … then just how many people are fortunate enough to get a third chance? You wouldn’t expect many!
However, Tanya Ginther spends everyday counting her blessings. It’s times like these Tanya would have missed. Just fifteen months ago, this story almost had a different ending.
(Tanya Ginther/ Survivor) “It was a Friday and you know we were running late as usual.” On December 21, 2007, the Ginthers were loading the car to head to a relatives for Christmas.
They never made it! In fact, they never even backed the car out of the garage.
(911 Tape) “911 What is your Emergency. I’m Mike Ginther. I need an Ambulance. My wife just passed out.”
(Tanya Ginther) “I guess I took a load out to the car and Mike said I sat down on the garage floor and he said what is wrong and I said I just cant catch my breathe and my heart is pounding and I fell over I guess.”
(911 Tape) “Come on Tanya, Come on Ton, Come on Tonya …Come on, come on. There you go honey. Breathe Girl, Breathe Girl.” Tanya fought for each breath. Meanwhile, her husband Mike did what he could to keep his family together.
(Mike Ginther) “The first ten minutes flew by pretty good. I was just concentrating on what I was doing and after that I started ok where are they at. Why aren’t they here. In CPR class they teach us what the expectancy is with ten minutes of CPR and its almost certain death after that long you need an AED shock to fix it and I didn’t have one.”
(Brad Feldman/ KX News) “About twenty minutes passed from the time Tanya collapsed and the Mercer County Ambulance got to her home in Hannover. Tanya was taken to a local hospital before being transferred here, to St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck.
By now, precious time passed … and Tanya’s chances of survival was looking bleak.
(John Windsor DO/ St. Alexius Medical Center) “At one time she was dead. And her husband brought her back. She had multiple periods where her rhythm was very fast an ineffective.” Tanya was suffering from a disease called Peri Partum Cardio Myopothy.
Basically, this is a weakness in the heart muscles that prevents the heart from pumping blood efficiently. It’s something that is typically diagnosed in the final month of a pregnancy or within five months after giving birth. Tanya gave birth to her son, Blaine, just two months before collapsing.
(John Windsor DO/ St. Alexius Medical Center) “At the time that she arrived she was too sick to get the one therapy that was going to keep her alive.” Tanya needed a left ventricular assist device put in… and the only place to do this is Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
But her condition did not allow her to make the flight. This is when doctors decided to induce hypothermia.
(Dr. Lloyd Blake/ St. Alexius Medical Center) “This is where we will cool a patient’s body down about six to eight degrees cooler than the normal body temperature.”
Tanya’s condition improved and she made the flight to Rochester. However, while in-flight she died again. And you can see…she lived to tell another story.
(Tanya Ginther) “Just miracle after miracle after miracle.” Tanya is not able to remember much of what happened, but she says the life changing experience has taught her a lot.
(Tanya Ginther) “Little things just dont matter as much as they used to. You live life for the day.”
(Mike Ginther) “It changed both of us forever. I feel like I have grown twenty years in the last year just with everything that has happened. Just thankful for everyday we have right now and just try to take it one day at a time for now and hope for the best.” On February sixth of this year, Tanya got some good news. She received a letter from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota stating she is no longer on the heart transplant list. Her heart is back to normal.