A North Carolina college senior suffered a brain haemorrhage while on spring break in Mexico, where she underwent emergency surgery to remove a portion of her skull before being flown back to the United States.
According to a GoFundMe page, Lisa Burke, a University of Georgia student, was on a trip to Cabo San Lucas with a group of friends when she complained of a headache at breakfast on Friday.
“She started to have a headache so she said, ‘I’m going to go back to the room to lay down and take some medicine,’” family friend Jennifer Ritter told WSB-TV.
“Her friends went back later to check on her and they couldn’t wake her up,” she said.
The Asheville native was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation, a tangle of blood vessels that connects arteries and veins irregularly, disrupting blood and oxygen flow.
According to Ritter, who organised the GoFundMe campaign, Burke has had the abnormality since birth.
Burke underwent emergency surgery to remove a portion of her skull and was placed on life support, according to WSB-TV.
She was placed on a medical flight on Tuesday and returned to the United States, where she was transported to Jacksonville, Florida, where her mother lives, and is being treated at the Mayo Clinic.
“The doctors there were so caring and really wanted to get her back to the states because they felt that is where she was going to have the best care,” mom Laura McKeithan told WSB-TV.
“Somehow, my friends were able to make enough calls and use the power of mamas to get her back,” she said, adding that her daughter has a long road ahead to recovery but has managed to squeeze her hand.
McKeithan said her daughter is breathing on her own but still uses a ventilator to keep her airway clear.
“(She is) nothing short of a miracle. We are told to take things one day at a time and not get our hopes too high, but to have plenty of hope,” the mom said.
