Former Beauty Queen Cynthia Martinez Has Partial Skull Removal Following Ruptured Brain Aneurysm

A former beauty queen has undergone a partial skull removal after suffering from a brain aneurysm. [...]

By Christian Long

A former beauty queen has undergone a partial skull removal after suffering from a brain aneurysm. Cynthia Martinez suffered the aneurysm at her home in Delaware last year and was rushed in for an emergency craniotomy. The surgery was a success, but days later the 35-year-old also suffered a stroke, causing her brain to swell.

Following this new development, Martinez had part of her skull removed as a life-saving procedure, which was replaced by synthetic bone. Just over a year later, Martinez has been unable to work due to disability, but says it's a "miracle" that she's still alive, according to The Daily Mail.

The incident occurred on Nov. 9 last year when going to a friend's house with her son, Bryce. Within minutes, Martinez collapsed, despite showing no prior symptoms for her condition. After being admitted to the hospital, doctors discovered the aneurysm in her brain.

"Fortunately, I don't remember much," Martinez recalled. "But from what I was told, I barely had taken off my coat when I collapsed, I had bent over to tell my son something when I just fell — in front of my friends and at the feet of my son. The EMTs got there quickly — and kept asking what drugs I took, they thought it was an overdose, I guess it's just routine and they actually gave me two shots of Narcan. Within a few hours, I had a craniotomy to clip the aneurysm."

By the time she had suffered from a stroke, her body had been sidelined by numerous other complications, including infections in her lungs and kidneys.

"I was just extremely sick and extremely weak at the time I was going into surgery," Martinez continued. There were no guarantees. Right before the stroke and the second surgery, I seemed to be doing fine — but it was very sudden that I took a turn for the worst. My family was in absolute shock and disbelief that they went from, 'Oh she's going to be OK' to, 'Wait, what are her final wishes?'"

Martinez eventually pulled through and was discharged from the hospital in January, though her replacement bone flap became infected a few weeks later, and had to be removed in February. Three months later, she had a tissue expander fitted, which was added surgically in September.

The former pageant queen says she owes her recovery to the power of prayer, "whether you believe they are from God, the Universe, any other higher being." She also said that it was the outpouring of support from people around the world that inspired her to document her struggle on social media.

"I just felt that, so many people all over prayed for me – I owe it to them to show them what they did," Martinez explained. "What their prayers accomplished. I will be forever grateful to everyone."

While the former pageant contender competed from the ages of 14-25. While she no longer takes part of these events from the stage, she's still actively involved in the pageant circuit as a staff member, judge, and emcee.

Photo credit: Cynthia Martinez / Instagram

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