Univ. of Georgia senior on life support in Florida after suffering brain hemorrhage in Mexico on Spring Break

A University of Georgia senior is on life support at a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, after suffering a rare condition that causes a brain hemorrhage while she was with friends on Spring Break in Mexico.

Liza Burke, 22, was on a trip to Cabo San Lucas earlier this month when she was found unresponsive by her friends on the morning of March 10. Burke was rushed to a local hospital where doctors found she had suffered from Arteriovenous malformation (AVM), which causes blood vessels to tangle, leading to a brain hemorrhage. 

Burke underwent emergency surgery and remained hospitalized in Mexico until this week, when she was transferred to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, closer to where her mother lives. Burke is still on life support and while doctors say she has shown some “promising signs,” her family has been told to “take things one day at a time,” according to Burke’s mother, Laura McKeithan. 

According to the National Organization of Rare Disorders, AVM affects less than 1 percent of the population, and most frequently presents with seizures. According to Burke’s friends, she had complained of a headache earlier in the morning the day she was found unresponsive, but did not display any other obvious symptoms of AVM.