‘Maybe I was seeing her in heaven’: Longtime Gonzaga fan who stared down death after medical emergency applauded at Zags game

Three years ago, Gloria Koger was rushed in an ambulance to MultiCare Deaconess Hospital where she nearly died.

A 5-pint blood transfusion and, later, medication for her newly diagnosed heart condition put her on the path to recovery.

On Thursday night, the 79-year-old longtime Gonzaga University basketball fan, with cheerleaders at her side, stood at center court of the McCarthey Athletic Center, where a packed, thunderous crowd for the men’s game against Loyola Marymount University cheered for Koger as part of the “Heart of the Zags” program, a partnership between MultiCare Pulse Heart Institute and the Gonzaga men’s basketball team.

“It’s so loud, and then I didn’t expect so much cheering,” said Koger, wearing a blue Heart of the Zags jacket.

She was recognized during the first media timeout of the game and then enjoyed the rest of the contest, courtesy of Heart of the Zags, with her granddaughter.

The program honors a MultiCare Pulse Heart Institute patient at every Gonzaga men’s home basketball game, said Kevin Maloney, spokesman at MultiCare.

Koger said she was diagnosed with a heart murmur prior to her heart event three years ago, but she never had any heart-related symptoms.

She said she wasn’t feeling well the day she was taken by ambulance to Deaconess. She passed out in the shower, struggled to turn the water off and crawled to the phone to call her son-in-law. She told him she couldn’t breathe, and he called the ambulance for her.

She said she didn’t remember anything, except dreaming of her mother, from the start of the ambulance ride to waking up in the hospital.

Koger and her mother, who had died 55 years earlier from a heart attack, were shopping, laughing and having a great time in her dream, she said.

“Maybe I was seeing her in heaven,” Koger said.

Koger woke up in the hospital, where medical staff were running tests and trying to figure out what was wrong with her.

“The next morning, heart doctors came into my room and said, ‘We don’t know how you survived the night,’” Koger said.

During her roughly five-day hospital stay, Koger said doctors learned she had a broken blood vessel in her intestine, which caused massive internal bleeding and required the blood transfusions.

She was also diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a type of heart disease.

Dr. David Bragin-Sanchez, Koger’s doctor, said that in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the heart muscle is too thick and makes it harder for the heart to pump blood throughout the body.

Koger said she was passing out at home that day because her blood wasn’t being pumped to where it needed to be.

“I feel like God had a hand in keeping me alive,” she said.

Koger also credited Deaconess.

“Deaconess heart team saved my life, and I will be forever grateful to them,” she said.

Koger said she chose to go on heart medication instead of surgery. The drug has worked so far in eliminating symptoms, and she said she was given permission about three months ago to start exercising.

“Dr. Sanchez is absolutely thrilled with the results,” said Koger, who called Sanchez a “miracle man” and her “hero.” “It has totally changed my life and my heart.”

As for her Zags fandom, the affection started in 1969 when she and her husband, to whom she was married for 52 years before his death, first moved to Spokane. Her husband’s job at Kaiser Aluminum took them to places like Chile and Africa before they settled with the company in Spokane for good in 2000.

When asked why she’s a Bulldogs fan, she replied, “How could you not be?”

She’s loved basketball since she was about 5 when her family started taking her to games.

Growing up in the small town of Simms, Montana, about 30 miles west of Great Falls, watching high school basketball games every Friday and Saturday is what you did, she said. Later, she would be a cheerleader for her school at those games.

It would be 30 years into her passion for Gonzaga basketball before head coach Mark Few, who Koger greatly admires, would take the reins of the program.

“I think he’s taken for granted,” she said.

She’s also a fan of the players, like Ben Gregg and his “cute little smile” when he makes a shot.

“I just love his smile,” Koger said.

Koger said she used to be one of the food samplers at the north Spokane Costco, and Gonzaga basketball players had come in before and stopped by her stand to try her samples.

“Of course, they liked to eat,” she said.

Koger said the student-athletes were always kind.

“They were so polite and so gentlemanly,” she said. “I just loved them.”

Koger had been to several Gonzaga women’s basketball games and a couple men’s games prior to Thursday night.

She had certainly never been on the court during the game.

“I can’t believe this is happening to me,” she said hours before the game. “I’m thrilled.”

She wasn’t anxious about the spotlight, either.

“Nothing makes me nervous at my age,” Koger said.

Well, the icy freeway as she drove alongside semitrucks to get her hair done the night before the game made her a bit apprehensive, she admitted.

She said she just wanted her team to win Thursday, which it did, cruising to a 20-point conference win against the private Los Angeles university.

Koger said she’s just grateful to be alive after her health scare, and she could not have had “better care or kinder people” than the Deaconess staff.

“I certainly wouldn’t be enjoying my great-grandchildren without the Deaconess heart team,” she said.