But her distraught husband Tani begged them not to switch off her ventilator.
"I'm a Catholic - I believe in miracles," he told them.
A doctor finally agreed to put a breathing tube into Mrs Cruz's throat before turning off the machine.
And three days later, she woke up. Mrs Cruz, 56, is now alert and getting around in a wheelchair at Royal Darwin Hospital.
Her husband said: "She's well on the way to recovery."
He said the family never gave up hope.
"We have a strong faith and always believed that God would help us."
Ms Cruz had a stroke in her sleep on March 7 and was rushed to Royal Darwin Hospital.
After a CAT scan, a doctor said she probably had a brain tumour. Mr Cruz, 51, who works as a forecaster at the Darwin Met Bureau, said: "The doctor didn't elaborate. He just said I should prepare myself." His wife underwent brain surgery immediately.
"The moment I saw my wife in the ICU I thought I'd collapse," he said.
"I couldn't believe that I was looking at the woman I have loved for 27 years. She was not my wife. Her face was swollen. Her hair was gone. Tubes were inserted in her mouth. There was a tube in the top of her head. Another in her hands. And she was lying almost lifelessly."
Doctors said the case was "hopeless" and she would probably die within 48 hours.
When a doctor recommended that the ventilator be removed and Mrs Cruz be allowed to die, her husband told them: "A miracle could still happen. I told him that God knows how much I love her - that I don't want her to suffer but I don't want her to leave us."
Mr Cruz asked for a 48-hour respite. A doctor, social worker and patient advocate later rang him and again asked him to agree to have the ventilator turned off.
After two weeks, a breathing tube was inserted in Mrs Cruz's mouth and the ventilator was turn off.
Hospital staff were stunned when she woke from her coma three days later.
A doctor was so amazed, he said: "It's a miracle."
And then he turned to Mr Cruz and said: "I am happy that my prognosis was wrong."
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