Around this time five years ago, actress Danielle Vasinova was dead. Now she is telling her story in her own words.
“On December 12, 2019, I died for three minutes,” the actress, who has just been cast in Yellowstone spinoff The Madison, told People.
In the very early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 1923 star believed she had come down with the flu and was misdiagnosed with strep throat, simply being prescribed antibiotics.
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But she knew something was wrong when the next day she was unable to walk, with the 42-year-old saying, “I felt like I was going to die.”
By 2am the following morning, her uncle raced her to the emergency room, though she had no memory of the incident.
“He said people were running around me, and a tiny girl jumped on top of my chest and began pumping, pumping, pumping,” the actress recalled.
“And then he saw my heartbeat on the monitor just go. Flatlined.”
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Vasinova was gone for three full minutes, she claims.
It was the effort of the ER nurses that revived her, not stopping until they found a pulse. She was then transferred to the ICU and put in an induced coma, having experienced complete organ failure.
“I went from young and healthy to this infection that completely took over my body all of a sudden,” she said.
The experience has given the The Bay star a renewed perspective on life.
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“It’s hard to even describe how I feel, but I’m so much more connected. This felt like the turning point in my life,” she said of her “death” and “rebirth”.
“I know to take nothing for granted. Life is so precious and it is such a gift. We’re here to do some good in the world, to be of service, and to be forever grateful.”
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