An amateur hockey player from Colorado went into cardiac arrest in the middle of a game and was dead for 16 minutes on the ice, with his surviving tale bringing him closer to his faith.
Billy Garaffa spoke out about his near-death incident from April 2022 last month, recounting when doctors on the ice scrambled on the ice to save his life.
Garaffa said moment into a city championship game in the Aspen, Colorado area he collapsed. His wife, Isabella Garaffa, was in the crowd, and remembers the moment – ‘I just yelled, ‘”Jesus, help him!”‘
It was later discovered Billy’s hear had grown rare collateral arteries which kept blood flowing with his heart stopped. That unique trait saved his life, with doctors believing he had a heart attack on the ice as well.
‘It’s like God built this miracle into me ahead of time,’ Billy said on the ‘No Longer Nomads’ podcast.
Yet, when in distress on the ice, Billy remembers the feeling while chaos went on around him.
An amateur hockey player from Colorado went into cardiac arrest in the middle of a game
Billy Garaffa spoke out about his near-death incident from April 2022 early last month
‘I could smell the sweetest smell,’ Billy said of him on the ice. ‘I felt the Holy Spirit leading me.’
Billy also said the moments of near-death also ‘felt like the real life’. He was eventually brought back to his senses and is healthy in present day, posting about Mother’s Day on his Instagram last week.
‘Everything was orchestrated,’ Billy added. ‘There’s no other explanation.’
Per a LinkedIn page found under his name, Garaffa is a property manager at Regan Construction in Snowmass Village, Colorado and has held the job since 2013.
The experience has left the Garaffa family forever changed, with their reflection of the incident bringing them closer to God.
‘He wants us to be in His presence,’ Billy said. ‘He wants to speak to you.’
