Stephanie Alyuz had 'less than an hour to live' after suffering sudden near fatal pulmonary embolism An animation of how a pulmonary embolism is developed. Video: Cube Stephanie Alyuz, pictured with daughter Jetta, 6, and husband Pasa, was just 25 when she suffered a sudden and near-fatal pulmonary embolism. Ms Alyuz had no idea she was living with a deadly condition. STEPHANIE Alyuz was about to celebrate her 25th birthday when she and her family learned she had less than an hour to live. The Brisbane mother-of-one was fit, active, in good health, and up until a few days before had been well with no clue she was living with a ticking time bomb. Mrs Alyuz thought she had come down with a flu or virus when she suddenly fell so ill that her husband Pasa took her straight to her GP. But just minutes later she collapsed and was rushed to Princess Alexandra Hospital with doctors working desperately to save her life. Taken into emergency theatre, she never imagined her sudden chest pains and difficulty breathing were sparked by a near-fatal pulmonary embolism or PE. But it was when surgeons operated they found five others in her lungs - the biggest 9cm long - they knew just how close to dying she had come. Now 28 and on medication, the mother-of-one wants to warn other young Australians about the deadly condition which affects one in 1000 Australians, and kills one in ten within a month of diagnosis. Pulmonary embolisms cause a blockage in the vessel of the lung and can sometimes have no symptoms with many people unaware they even have one. In severe cases it can obstruct blood flow out of the heart and is considered just as deadly as Deep Vein Thrombosis, which start in the legs and can move throughout the body. "I remember suddenly feeling sick, like I was coming down with the flu, and my GP told me it was a virus," she told news.com.au We were on the way to see a movie for my birthday when my blood pressure suddenly dropped. My husband said I lost all colour and my breathing turned shallow. It was then he rushed me to the GP. But the mother-of-one was taken straight to emergency in an ambulance after collapsing, with doctors struggling to find a vein to insert an IV. It was only when she complained of massive chest pain that they did a scan and found the pulmonary embolisms which were minutes away from killing her - with one just 3mm from her heart. Mrs Alyuz said the next minutes turned into a blur and she kept thinking about her husband, daughter Jetta, then three, and how "this kind of thing only happened to older people." "Neither me or my husband realised how serious it was, I kept thinking things like that don't happens to people my age" she said.