UFC Vet Angela Magana In Coma After Emergency Surgery

UFC women’s strawweight veteran Angela Magana is unfortunately in a coma.

Magana’s coach, Gabriel Lamastus, confirmed the harrowing news to MMA Junkie this morning (Wed., April 17, 2019). Magana is currently at University Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, due to complications from emergency surgery. Magana had posted on social media that she was “about to be put in a gown and cap for surgery” early Tuesday morning.

More than half a day later, the following post on Magana’s social media accounts appeared:

“Message from Coaching Staff there have complications (sic) and they can not wake her up. They are trying many options we will keep you up to day. Thank you for the out pouring (sic) of concern and love #TeamLaPerla #”

Message from Coaching Staff there have complications and they can not wake her up. They are trying many options we will keep you up to date. Thank you for the out pouring of concern and love #TeamLaPerla #🙏

— Angela Magana (@AngelaMagana1) April 16, 2019

Early this morning, another post confirmed Magana was still unresponsive:

Angela still unresponsive I will be here in the icu at hospital as nuero team works on this. Remeber lifs is so short and can change in a blink of an eye!

We Love You Magaña
Team La perla

— Angela Magana (@AngelaMagana1) April 17, 2019

Back Pain Lead To Surgery

Lamastus confirmed to MMA Junkie that Magana recently had back pain while training for an upcoming fight in Combate Americas. During a training session on April 7, she was taken down and injured as a result. She went in for testing and found out she had a herniated disc due to the training injury. Magana was prescribed medication the next day. She continued to train for the bout but the pain eventually became too great to bear.

Magana was given a nerve block on Monday of this week. But she did not respond well, Lamastus said. A diagnosis of cauda equina syndrome arose and she then needed emergency surgery yesterday.

Issues With Anesthesia

Her coach is at the hospital with her. He expanded further on the life-threatening situation, noting that the anesthesia was the cause of the problem:

“She’s in a coma, and we’re waiting to hear some positive news,” said Lamastus, who was at the hospital with Magana. “The surgery went fine. The problem was anesthesia. It’s very rare that patients react bad to anesthesia, but it does happen, and I guess this is one of those rare cases. But I’m being positive. She’ll be fine, and she’ll wake up. She’s a fighter. I’m just staying positive.”

Magana’s aunt died from anesthesia. Magana herself was frightened before the surgery in this video posted on Twitter:

This is hard to watch but we didnt know this is where she would be.
Good vibes and healing energy to our warrior! You will wake up!!!!
Team La Perla pic.twitter.com/aWvu1ZQuIu

— Angela Magana (@AngelaMagana1) April 17, 2019

Magana was released from the UFC in 2017 after an 0-3 run. Many attributed her losses to her level of competition such as Michelle Waterson and Tecia Torres. She initially rose to fame on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) due to her over-the-top personality on the show. She was last seen losing to Kanako Murata in Rizin FF last year. Her upcoming Combate Americas bout with Kyra Batara was scheduled for April 26.

Lamastus said Magana was planning on representing her home of Puerto Rico in wrestling at next year’s Olympics. He closed by saying the outspoken personality fans see on social media is only part of the real person. He claimed people don’t know the real Magana because of that:

“She’s a hard worker. Angela is a very, very hard worker,” Lamastus said. “A lot of people only know the Angela from social media. They don’t really know the real Angela. That woman busts her tail to provide for her family.”