A 63-year-old woman suffered a sudden cardiac arrest on a busy street in Manhattan. But how her life was saved is nothing short of a miracle.
How many times has God saved us from danger we never even saw coming? We are here only because of His mercy and constant care.
He watches over every step we take and sends help at the right time when we need it.
In this incredible story, God placed the right people at the right moment to save a woman’s life.
A Normal Morning Turns Dangerous
Merryl Hoffman was doing everything right for her health. The 63-year-old lawyer never smoked or drank alcohol. She loved hiking and used to run marathons.
Years earlier, doctors had surgically repaired her leaky mitral valve, and she saw her cardiologist every year. Her cardiac function tests always came back normal.
On October 23, 2024, Hoffman grabbed her work bag and purse and rushed out of her apartment. She needed to catch the subway to get to work on time.
She was thinking about her busy day ahead. Her heart was the last thing on her mind.
Her Heart Stops Beating
Then something terrible happened. Hoffman experienced sudden cardiac arrest. Her heart completely stopped beating and she collapsed to the sidewalk, unconscious.
Doctors later explained she had suffered a severe arrhythmia, a dangerous irregular heart rhythm that proves fatal without immediate intervention.
But God had placed Hoffman in the perfect spot. She collapsed right outside Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
A hospital worker and a jogger ran over to help her right away. Then something beautiful happened.
Two Nurses Show Up at the Perfect Time
Two nurses named Sabrina Castle and Gianna Formisano were walking to work at the cancer center. They saw the crowd gathering around someone on the ground.
“We were so shocked. When we were walking up, people were like ‘Nurses, nurses!’ We didn’t know what we were walking into,” Formisano said. “People were grabbing our coffee, taking our bags. It was out of a movie, the way that they were like ‘Oh, thank God you’re here.'”
Five Minutes That Changed Everything
The nurses immediately began CPR, manually compressing her chest to maintain blood circulation to her vital organs.
Hoffman had no detectable pulse and had sustained a head injury from her fall. The nurses told someone to call an ambulance while they kept working to save her life.
Those five minutes felt like hours. “After five minutes that felt like forever, the ambulance arrived,” Formisano said.
Castle and Formisano helped the paramedics get Hoffman into the ambulance. She was transported to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s cardiac care unit for emergency treatment.
The crowd went back to their daily lives. Castle and Formisano went to work, but they could not stop thinking about the woman they had helped.
A few hours later, they called the hospital to check on her. They even went there to talk to the nurses taking care of her.
A hospital nurse told them wonderful news. “She was like, ‘You got her back. She’s intubated, she’s alive, you saved her life,'” Castle remembered.
Waking Up Five Days Later
Hoffman stayed unconscious for five whole days. When she finally woke up, her family told her what had happened.
Doctors explained that her heart had stopped for several minutes. The quick actions of the nurses and other people had saved her life.
“Without them, I was told, there was no doubt I would have died or been brain dead,” Hoffman said. “They absolutely saved my life.”
Hoffman needed surgery to implant an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) in her chest. This life-saving device continuously monitors her heart and delivers electrical shocks to correct irregular rhythms.
She also began cardiac rehabilitation to strengthen her heart and improve her overall cardiovascular health.
Soon she went back to work and life got back to normal. But she had one big question: Who were the people who saved her?
Finding Her Heroes
God had one more surprise in store. While attending cardiac rehabilitation sessions, Hoffman kept telling people about the strangers who helped her.
One of the therapists heard her story and thought it sounded familiar. His girlfriend knew two nurses who had helped a woman just like Hoffman described.
The therapist connected Hoffman with Castle and Formisano. The three women planned to have dinner together right away.
Hoffman’s husband came too. At dinner, the nurses told them exactly what happened that morning.
Meeting Again at the Same Spot
The women stayed friends after that dinner. Not long ago, Castle and Formisano were walking to work again when they saw Hoffman on the same street where she had collapsed months before. They took a picture together right at that spot.
This story shows us how God works in ways we don’t expect. He put skilled nurses in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. He gave them courage to act when someone needed help.
God knows exactly what lies ahead in our lives and always prepares a way through every challenge we face. Let us always be grateful for His endless mercy and love for us.
