A mother from Oklahoma has bravely revealed details of her remarkable survival and extraordinary visions experienced during a devastating heart attack, which she had initially mistaken for little more than a bout of flu.
Jenna Tanner, aged 49, spoke candidly for the first time about the vivid out-of-body vision she encountered after suffering a so-called “widowmaker” heart attack—one of the most serious forms of cardiac arrest, carrying a survival rate of just 12 per cent outside hospital settings. Misinterpreting early warning signs of chest discomfort and breathlessness as lingering illness from her children’s recent bout of flu, Tanner was alone at home when the life-threatening event occurred.
In her recollection, Tanner described an otherworldly sensation of drifting through space, surrounded by dazzling stars and swirling clouds of colour resembling a cosmic nebula. “I remember being wrapped in darkness at first,” she recounted, “then almost peacefully floating closer to shifting masses of vibrant colours and bright stars.” According to Tanner, the experience was both serene and awe-inspiring, standing in stark contrast to the physical trauma she was enduring at the time.
The widowmaker heart attack Tanner survived results from a complete blockage of the left anterior descending artery—an event which disrupts blood flow to a large portion of the heart, often with fatal consequences. On the day it struck, Tanner’s three children, Mazie, Avery and Brady, had already left for school. She attempted to carry on with chores, sweeping the house as usual, when her blood pressure suddenly plunged. Recognising her condition might be serious, she headed into her home office and sat on the floor to prevent falling, but quickly became incapacitated.
During the two hours in which she faded in and out of consciousness, Tanner says she encountered what she now refers to as her “astral journey”. When she eventually regained full awareness, she described feeling as though she’d been “propelled back” into her body by what she likened to a bolt of lightning, experiencing excruciating pain as she re-entered. “It felt like an elephant was crushing my chest, and at that moment I knew without a doubt I was having a heart attack,” she explained.
With her mobile phone frustratingly out of reach, Tanner struggled for survival, intermittently crawling across the floor in search of help. She says thoughts of her youngest child discovering her in such a state provided the motivation to keep fighting. Eventually, she managed to contact her husband, alert emergency services, and unlock the front door before collapsing once more.
Emergency response teams arrived with impressive speed, a feat which was later officially recognised at a local awards event. Tanner revealed that her remarkable case left both paramedics and hospital staff astonished. One of her attending cardiologists openly admitted, “In over two decades and thousands of operations, I have never seen a case like this—honestly, I wasn’t certain survival was even possible, given the circumstances.”
Tanner endured a difficult period of recovery, marked by post-traumatic stress disorder and significant lifestyle adjustments. Today, however, she’s enjoying a new lease of life and has begun writing a memoir in hopes of offering solace and insight to others facing serious health emergencies.
Medical experts underline the importance of recognising the signs of a “widowmaker” heart attack as quickly as possible, especially since some symptoms, including nausea, chest tightness, and shortness of breath, can be mistaken for less serious ailments—particularly among women. Swift intervention to unblock the artery is vital to increasing the patient’s chance of survival and minimising long-term damage to the heart muscle.
Jenna Tanner’s extraordinary survival story offers a potent reminder of the fragility of life, the need for prompt medical attention when symptoms arise, and the mysterious, almost ineffable experiences some report from the brink of death. Her journey from near tragedy to authorship stands as a source of hope for those facing their own medical challenges.