Fan Died, Resuscitated After Heart Stops at Lady Gaga Concert

Crystal Thornton and her best friend have been planning for five years to attend a Lady Gaga concert. On Tuesday, the duo were front and center at the show in Nashville, Tennessee when disaster struck. During the opening act, Crystal, 33, began suffering what seemed to be a seizure. Soon, she had no heartbeat. She had essentially died. Which, coincidentally, isn't the first time someone suffered a heart attack and died at a Lady Gaga event.

[Crystal's friend] waved down an usher who paged the onsite medics. A Vanderbilt [Hopsital] LifeFlight EMT supervisor immediately responded and found Thornton was unconscious and had no heartbeat. He along with a paramedic used a defibrillator for more than five minutes to get her heart started again. She was then rushed to Vanderbilt's Emergency Department. Upon arrival at Vanderbilt, her body was cooled through therapeutic hypothermia protocol because she was at risk for anoxic brain injury due to prolonged lack of oxygen. Thornton was then transported to the cardiovascular intensive care unit and continued the cooling therapy. Thornton regained consciousness, and her neurologic status has improved daily. A series of tests was run to determine why she suffered a cardiac arrest at such a young age. Physicians determined that she has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart. Doctors said it is a genetic condition with no warning symptoms and often results in an emergency situation.
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Crystal says she has no recollection of what happened and is “so mad [she] missed the concert.” On Monday, she will undergo surgery to receive an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) that will automatically restore her heartbeat should she ever experience another cardiac arrest.