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UGA senior in critical condition after brain hemorrhage on spring break trip to Mexico

MEXICO — The family of a University of Georgia senior who suffered a brain hemorrhage in Mexico is trying to raise enough funds to fly her back to the United States for medical treatment.

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Liza Burke, who is from Asheville, North Carolina, was on spring break in Cabo San Lucas with a group of friends when she got a headache, according to a GoFundMe set up to help the family. Burke went back to her room to rest, and when friends tried to wake her up they realized she was unresponsive.

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She was rushed to a hospital in Mexico where she was diagnosed with an Arteriovenous malformation (AVM).

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Burke is currently on life support and in critical condition. Doctors said she needs to return to the U.S. to get expert medical treatment, and they are raising money to pay for her life-flight transport from Mexico to Jacksonville, Florida.

“She is genuine, dynamic, playful and fierce,” friends wrote. “She has so much left to give to the world. Please continue to pray for her full recovery.”

An AVM is a tangle of blood vessels that connects arteries and veins in the brain. They are rare and most people are born with them, though they can form later in life. AVMs often don’t cause signs or symptoms until they rupture.