We knew some of Lady Gaga’s outfits were jaw-dropping, but now the outre pop star is single-handedly responsible for taking one Tennessee woman’s breath away. Crystal Thornton is in stable condition at a Nashville hospital after she suffered a heart attack while attending a Lady Gaga concert last week.
Thornton suffered the attack shortly after Mother Monster hit the stage at Bridgestone Arena for the latest stop on her Monster Ball Tour last Wednesday night. By the time EMTs arrived on the scene, Crystal had lost consciousness and had stopped breathing. Paramedics spent over five minutes attempting to resuscitate the fan before her tickered kicked up again.
”We were just laughing, cutting up like we always do. Then, her body was twitching, she stopped breathing, her eyes were in the back of her head, I grabbed her face, screaming out to her, trying to get her awake,” says Crystal’s friend Christina Tugman, who was with her during that fateful show. “I was asking if she was okay, and she wasn’t responding.”
Thornton was airlifted to the emergency room, where doctors used therapeutic hypothermia to cool her body temperature to between 93 and 86 degrees, below the normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees.
“Even though her heart was working again, doctors wanted to slow circulation in order to prevent the death of brain cells — and, therefore, brain damage — caused by prolonged lack of oxygen. Chilled water blankets were placed over Thornton’s body and head, and medical personnel then used a machine to lower her body temperature for 48 hours,” according to CNN.
Dr. Jared McKinney, medical director of LifeFlight Event Medicine, credits quick thinking by those first responders with saving the patient’s life: “The patient received incredible care from the moment she experienced problems at the Bridgestone Arena. It is only through a coordinated team effort that her successful outcome was possible.”
Her cardiologist says the 33-year-old appears to have an enlarged heart, but after being stricken by a seizure on Thursday, Thornton is undergoing tests at Vanderbilt Medical Center to pinpoint the exact cause of her recent health woes.
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