By Riley Gonzalez-
After dropping to the ground outside her Phoenix home, Tina Hines had her eyes roll back and her skin start turning purple.
“I thought she was dead,” her husband, Brian Hines, said. “Man, I’ve never seen anybody with their eyes rolled back and literally starting to turn purple.”
That February morning in 2018 started like a normal day. But within minutes, Brian was on the phone with 911 and then pressing his wife’s chest with everything he had, trying to bring her back. One of their neighbors, Jeff Logus, attempted CPR first but broke down sobbing, “I can’t do this. I’m not doing it right.”
Brian took over. “I just started pushing on Tina,” he said. “Pushing on her chest, in the middle of her chest. It was like a man giving every last breath that he had to try to get his wife back.”
By the time paramedics arrived, Tina had no pulse. They shocked her heart once, then again with no results. The third time, Brian looked at them and begged, “Guys, is her heart beating? Can you get her heart to beat? Please God, please make her heart beat.”
Tina was without oxygen for nearly 30 minutes, which in medical terms means brain death. But when doctors tried one more defibrillation at the hospital, just one more time. Tina came back
“I got a text on my phone,” her brother-in-law Dave said. “It was from Brian: ‘Tina is alive.’”
The doctors quickly put her into a medically induced coma. “Most people don’t survive five to ten minutes without oxygen,” her doctor explained. “And if she does survive, the chances of her waking up normally are extremely low.”
While Tina lay in the ICU, hooked up to machines, her family gathered in the waiting room to pray. Brian whispered into her ear, “The doctor needs to know that you can breathe on your own And I told him you’re Superwoman, Can you show him?”
Her chest rose. Brian looked at the doctor. “That’ll work,” the doctor said.
When Tina finally woke up, she couldn’t speak yet. Her family placed a pen in her hand and asked her questions. With effort she began writing.
“It’s real,” she scribbled.
What’s real? they wondered. “The pain? The hospital?” Tina shook her head. Her daughter guessed “Heaven?” Tina nodded.
“I saw Jesus face to face,” Tina later explained. “The unbelievable rest and peacefulness of what I was experiencing was Jesus standing there with his arms open wide. And right behind Him, there was this incredible glow. The most vibrant and beautiful yellow.”
She was discharged just four days after dying in front of her husband, No brain damage; No lasting effects. Just a powerful story she couldn’t keep to herself.
“God is real in my life. Jesus is real. Heaven is real,” Tina said. “I know that God can use every situation to make us who we are in Christ.”
Today, Tina is training for a half-marathon. She speaks publicly about her story and uses her life as living proof of what she calls a miracle. After being legally dead for 27 minutes, Tina Hines came back with one clear message Heaven is real and she’s seen it.
