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Tampa woman suffers medical emergency on Delta flight, now searching for doctors who saved her

Posted at 7:32 PM, Dec 08, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-09 13:40:38-05

Debbie Taylor isn’t supposed to be here. In fact Debbie Taylor is supposed to be dead.

"I have some angels up there that said it wasn’t my time yet," she says.

Her journey back to life begins where it almost ended, 40,000 feet in the air over the Pacific Ocean, on her way home from a vacation in Vietnam.

"I remember telling the woman next to me...I don’t feel well I need to get home," she recalls.

Debbie became non-responsive but that’s where this story takes a dramatic turn. Three doctors, who just happened to be on board, jumped into action.

"They gave me CPR for about five hours," she says.

The pilots made an emergency landing in Alaska. Paramedics rushed Debbie to the hospital. Her daughter Cheryl Cowans raced from Tampa to be by her mother's side.

"I was worried she was gonna be brain dead," recalls Cheryl.

Doctors put Debbie on life support. But, in yet another twist, she came out of her coma.

"After I woke up I was afraid to go to sleep. I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up," says Debbie.

Fast forward two weeks later, Debbie is home, back to being “Mimi” to her grandsons.
But she never got a chance to thank those three mystery doctors she calls her angels.

"You saved my life thank you very much," she says.

"I’m sure they want to know what happened I just want to say thank you (because) my mom is my best friend," says Cheryl.

A journey back from the brink of death. Debbie Taylor is the walking, living, miracle.

Because of Delta's confidentiality clause, the airline won't release the names of the doctors.

Debbie tells us she's learned through social media that one of the doctor's may live in the Detroit area. So she's hoping her story gets out there so she may one day meet the people who kept her alive.