![\".istockphoto.com\/photos\/coma-patient\"](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/istockphoto-159030494-612x612-Copy-696x464.jpg\" "\\".istockphoto.com\/photos\/coma-patient\\"\/")
Dianne Akurangi has always been in incredible shape \u2013 owning a gym, playing touch rugby and competing in bodybuilding.<\/p>\n
So when the 39-year-old mum-of-two was told she had three blocked arteries around her heart, her entire family was shocked.<\/p>\n
The New Zealand Herald reports Dianne was booked in for a triple bypass operation to clear the blockages in September 2020, two months before she was due to marry her partner Reweti.<\/p>\n
Although she was nervous about being \u201ccut open\u201d so close to her big day, she got ready for the surgery and had dinner with Reweti and her sons, Inatiaus, 10, and Te Awa, 6, the night before.<\/p>\n
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She joked to Reweti that he\u2019d better not dare to turn off her life support before she was put under general anaesthetic.<\/p>\n
But after the operation threw up complications, her words became even more chilling.<\/p>\n
At 2.30am, Reweti received a terrifying phone call to tell him Dianne was in a critical condition. When doctors had opened her up, her heart had gone into spasm.<\/p>\n
He recalled: \u201cThe voice on the other end made your stomach churn because they too were speaking in a broken voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The surgeons explained that Dianne\u2019s heart had gone \u201cboom\u201d as soon as they touched it \u2013 leading them to try and perform a quadruple bypass \u2013 which was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
While on the operating table Dianne had gone into cardiac arrest three times. After the third arrest, the surgeon had to pump her heart with his hands to get it working again.<\/p>\n
Reweti was asked to bring the boys to the hospital to say goodbye to Dianne, who was just inches from death, according to doctors.<\/p>\n
He recalled his youngest son\u2019s heartbreaking words to his mother as they sat in her hospital room.<\/p>\n
\u201cLove you Mum, love you Mum, love you Mum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The family had been told Dianne had just one hour to live, but when that hour came and went and Dianne was hanging on, there was a glimmer of hope.<\/p>\n
Doctors decided to transfer Dianne to a bigger hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, with her chest still open.<\/p>\n
When she arrived, she had three more operations, but remained in a coma and on life support. Her family were told she may never wake up and, if she did, she may not be able to walk or talk.<\/p>\n
But Dianne\u2019s brain was working perfectly well \u2013 and she even believes she was aware of things happening around her while she was in the coma.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was seeing things like they were real. I could see myself dead in a box, looking down. It was like watching TV and you are flicking from one episode to the next,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She added she also had visions of people arriving at her \u201ctangi\u201d \u2013 which is a Maori word for \u201cmourning.\u201d However, in this vision, the mourners were gathered but there was no body.<\/p>\n
While in the coma, Dianne remembers hearing her sons speaking to her.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cTe Awa was saying, \u2018I love you, Mumma\u2019. Naish going, \u2018Fight Mum, fight\u2019. Man, I fought the hardest fight for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miraculously, nine days later, Dianne woke up. But she had an enormous struggle ahead and had to learn how to walk and talk again.<\/p>\n
And when she saw the trauma that had been inflicted on her body, she was in shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry. My whole chest was like purple, holes everywhere, just ugly,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n
A month after she woke up, Dianne was discharged and went back to her home in Gisborne to be with her family.<\/p>\n
But she had to battle flashbacks from being in the coma and struggled to sleep. She also struggled with paranoia and wanted to protect her family.<\/p>\n
With the help of psychologists and counsellors, Dianne managed to heal the mental scars from the trauma she\u2019d faced.<\/p>\n
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