Sara Harvey RN, Stephanie Cormier APRN, Dr. Omid Zad, Jorge Negrin, Bertaletta Negrin, Joelle Belcher ECMO Specialist, Victoria Thornton ECMO Specialist, Heather O'Connell RN
TAMPA, Fla., — Jorge Negrin is known as the Christmas miracle at AdventHealth Tampa. The 46-year-old suffered a major heart attack at his home on December 23, 2024. He was able to reunite with his medical team in the Intensive Care Unit to thank them for saving his life.
“First, I thank God that I am alive. Next, I thank the doctors. They treated me very well. They were very attentive to me,” said Jorge Negrin.
“I don’t have any complaints. We are so grateful to the medical team and the doctors that he is still alive. I don’t even have the words to thank them,” said Negrin’s wife, Bertalina Figueras Castro.
Negrin, a father of two, remembers vividly when he felt a pain in his chest, and then his back. He laid down and the pain didn’t subside which led him to take an aspirin. He then vomited and took some medicine to calm his stomach, thinking he was experiencing food poisoning. He vomited again. Then, when he sat down, he passed out. Unbeknownst to him, his heart had stopped working. Negrin did not have any prior medical conditions.
“I have been with my husband for 20 years, and he never gets sick, not even with the flu. This was very unexpected for us,” Figueras Castro said.
Unsure of what was wrong, Figueras Castro called 911.
“[The paramedics] came and worked on him for four minutes. Those four minutes were the longest in my life,” recalled Figueras Castro.
“When they arrived at my house, I was unconscious. I was dead. They revived me and took me to the hospital,” Negrin said.
Paramedics rushed him to AdventHealth Tampa, a few minutes away. Negrin developed cardiac arrest again and physicians continued to perform CPR to resuscitate him. He had experienced extreme cardiogenic shock with severe acidosis and was put on a ventilator.
“It felt like the whole world was coming down on me. He means everything to us. We don’t have family here. It was a very sad and hard day,” Figueras Castro recalled, adding that her husband was the sole provider for their family.
Utilizing every tool available to save his life, Negrin was transferred to the catheterization lab in the AdventHealth Pepin Heart Institute, where cardiologist, Dr. Asad Sawar, implanted two stents. He was then transferred to the operating room and cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Richard Morrison promptly escalated his mechanical support to Impella 5.5 within a few hours, which assisted the heart with providing blood and oxygen to his organs. He then was transferred to the intensive care unit.
“The challenge was the unknown. When the heart stops, we don’t know how long the patient didn’t have oxygen and blood to their brain. And if the brain is dead, they’re not going to come back ever,” explained Dr. Omid Zad, the Medical Director of the Intensive Care Unit at AdventHealth Tampa.
Negrin remained on a ventilator. Despite the unknown, the medical team did not give up on Negrin and instead decided to proceed with emergent ECMO treatment which was performed by Dr. Swanson on Christmas Day. It’s a procedure that offered temporary support to his lungs, while pumping his blood into a machine to fill the blood with oxygen, and then pumping it back into his body, allowing for his lungs to rest and heal.
“This is very specialized care that we do provide in this hospital. There are not many hospitals in Tampa or the surrounding area that can do all of that,” Dr. Zad said.
Then, the miracle happened. Five days after being on ECMO, doctors decided to remove it and by January 3, he came off of the ventilator.
“When he opened his eyes, I couldn’t believe it. I had asked God for a miracle,” recalled Figueras Castro, remembering how she had started to lose hope, seeing him on so many machines and consuming a multitude of medicines, as well as dialysis.
Nearly four weeks later, on Jan. 29, Negrin was discharged from the hospital.
“I am so thankful they helped us. They have a big heart. It was so kind what they did, the entire team,” said Figueras Castro, adding the medical team cared for the whole health of the family, assisting with food and other necessities during the challenging time.
Dr. Zad said he is very proud of his team in the intensive care unit.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be able to save someone’s life. The entire team did everything they could to save his life and fortunately it did work,” Dr. Zad said.