Experiencing Death: An Insider's Perspective

As a nurse in a critical care area I was at a number of bedsides when patients "passed". In the middle of the night one sad patient went into cardiac arrest. A team arrived swiftly, she was given the traditional medications which strengthen heart function, intubated and connected to a machine to breath, jolted a number of times with increasing power... nothing. The ER doctor and I were resigned because this young woman was already in terrible health and by her own hand. She was a severe alcoholic with a very damaged liver. She lived on the streets in brutal weather surrounded by an unfeeling city. We had treated her a few times in the past... this was her last trip. I had a very new nurse under my wing that night. "Debbie" was a timid and nervous sort... at times I wondered why, for GOD'S SAKE she had chosen this kind of nursing. She was quite unnerved by this "code blue" but work is work. I instructed her in "death care" which was basically to clean the deceased, place in a paper shroud with a proper toe tag ID, and straighten the room in case the family arrived... not really expected in this case, though. Our sad young dead patient had long abandoned her friends and family. No one ever visited or called to ask her condition though we'd been caring for her a good long time. "Debbie" looked like she wanted to quit... hey, we ALL feel that way sometimes. But I handed her the "death pack" and literally shoved her towards the dark room. I, meanwhile, had to call the deceased's attending doctor to inform him of the ER doctor's death certification. No one wants to get a call at 2 am but the doc thanked me and then hung up to inform whomever was listed as the "next of kin". I put down the phone and started the endless paperwork. Twenty minutes passed and "Debbie" appeared behind me. I thought she had a question... she just stood there looking pop eyed. I actually had to shake her a bit to get her to talk. "She's NOT DEAD!!" "Debbie" was practically vibrating. Okay, "death care" is creepy. I told her to take a breath, sit down for a minute, and then GET THE DAMN JOB DONE!! But she wouldn't. She insisted that the patient was breathing. Right. People refer to it as a "death rattle" but the truth is very mundane. In a code, the lungs are much more inflated than in ordinary respiration. We're actually shoving air in under force. After death, the air is still present for quite a while and when you turn the person over, that air is forced up through the airway, producing what sometimes sounds like a gasp. But "Debbie" had my arm in a vise grip and she was dragging me into the darkened room. Alright, already! I marched "Debbie" up to the bedside. The patient was turned away so I took her shoulder and turned her flat. "NOW LOOK!" I directed "Debbie". And the deceased person opened her eyes and looked. I have NEVER been so shocked at anything as that. "Elaine" not only looked right at me but she blinked a few times. I stuttered something incredibly stupid like "How are you doing?" "Elaine" whispered clearly, "Okay". Oh shit. I ran out of the room like I was on fire and called the ER doc. I gave "Debbie" a savage look that directed her to stay with "Elaine" and very reluctantly she returned to the scene of our crime. HOW could we have missed this?!! While I was waiting on the phone, I was ripping through the chart looking for all the cardiac pattern printouts. There was NOTHING. The code had produced zero effect on the patient. There were forty minutes of what's called "agonal rhythm" otherwise known as "death throes" as the electrical function shuts down for the last time. NOTHING else. No breathing, no heart beat, and pupils non-reactive... in other words D.E.A.D. "What's up?" Yeah... BAD news doc. What do I do with an incorrect "time of death"? "WHAT THE HELL?!" He ran up to the ward with the same pants on fire urgency I had. Now, the two of us had to have a most unfortunate conversation about which of us got to call her attending doctor with this startling news. I refused. After all, HE filled out the death certificate. The attending was PISSED. Naturally, it was assumed that we had botched this and now HE had already notified the next-of-kin. They had to be UN-notified, so to speak. Ouch. What the hell were we supposed to do? This young woman was NOT a liver transplant candidate. Her system was in slow motion shut down for the weeks of her care. She had never regained consciousness after being found in an alley. There was no life path. None. I asked if we should try to start an IV or get O2 started. The ER doc was very kind and stood at the bedside asking "Elaine" if she wanted anything done. No. Nothing. We took turns sitting with her for the remainder of shift to monitor this startling situation. "Elaine" said she wished her family was there but I had no contact information beyond the "next-of-kin" and the phone number just rang without answer. Needless to say, this patient attracted A LOT of attention. People were respectful and quiet... "Elaine" didn't seem to mind. Then, they arrived. The family. "Elaine" did pass away later the next day. But the entire extended family and everyone who'd ever knew her it seemed waited patiently to sit with her. She talked with all of them but her strength was strained to the max and all visitors had to basically put their heads on the pillow next to her face as she whispered words of apologies and such. A funeral with a live guest of honor. Weird. When her time did come, she smiled at them all and closed her eyes with such a peaceful expression that it hushed the mob for what seemed an eternity. I've heard of Near Death Experiences. Perhaps it is just my desire to think it possible. But "Elaine" had been sent back for a mission. She got the job done. Clearly, she wanted to leave at the end. I never forgot her.

I'm glad the lady sharing her story is an educated surgeon........and they cannot treat her like she's uneducated.

I will never understand how these people think they can speak about NDE when they have never experienced one. The Scientists who have, know there is something bigger happening here.

Mr Kevin, I have proof that I died 11 minutes & 58 seconds. I have photos of my heart & medical papers. And that was in 2008! So, you are wrong. I also had a near death experience years before that. I went to Heaven, was healed. I still had to go to hospital both times, but did die & live again. GOD CAN & STILL PERFORMS MIRACLES!

Kevin is the kind of scientist that will never accept a theory he cannot measure. The brain function and the mind are separate. All you can measure is whether the brain has shut down,not where the mind(soul?) has gone.

Those who doubt simply have not been given the gift of experience, including the gracious doctors on this panel. Dr. Mary Neal is the most eloquent on this panel as she KNOWS.

When I dream, I usually will dream about people in my life that are alive. Sometimes, I will have a strong dream with my deceased sister in it. I think it's telling that people that have near death experiences seem to only report encountering people that have died. They don't say my living husband or living child was there guiding me into the light. This is a big difference between dreams and near death experiences.

“Wizards and castles...?” NO. He’s pissing me off with his pompousness.

Thank God! Finally a debate where people can have a discussion without insulting each other and while they may disagree can be totally civil about it and not resort to insulting the oppositions intelligence.

Ppl like 'neurologist' Kevin Nelson are proof that no amount of education or experience can produce intelligence,common sense in the individual, let alone result in useful knowledge. He went around in circles for over an hour, not once did he or anyone else on the panel bring up & discuss (give explanations for or against) the fact that many of these NDE'ers give detailed accurate descriptions of what was going on NOT just in that same room or building, BUT in another part of town miles away.

Regardless of this debate on "clinical death" there have been people who came into operating rooms in cardiac arrest who had out of body experiences where the saw and later described detailed events in the hospital (such as staff coming into to a side room and posting a specific number of call-back post-it-notes on a board for the surgeon/ER doc to return. Those events were later confirmed by staff to have occurred exactly as described by the patient. The patient was never conscious on the operating table and even if they were they were not in a position to see what they described. Experiences like this were detailed by cardiologist Pim Van Lommel in his research.

I believe consciousness exists beyond the brain.

I've heard of cases of terminal lucidity where people in their last moments are able to remember the names and faces of family members that they could not before, and hold coherent conversations again. I'd imagine death is much the same. I see the brain as a filter for consciousness, not the producer of consciousness, so when it goes, your true consciousness can be experienced.

I had an out of body/near death experience. What I gathered from that, you experience what you believe or lean toward from all the life experiences you've had. At the time, what I believed or thought about death once you died, your spirit would rest in your grave until the day of the rapture because that is what I was taught in Sunday school. Funny thing happened in my experience, my spirit was lying down behind my body that was sitting upright. I could see the back of the top of my head peaking out above the passenger seat. To the left in the driver's seat, I could see my friend at the time, facing me, crying. I couldn't hear anything. I could just observe. I felt nothing. No emotions about what I was witnessing. Without any outside prompts, or even wanting to, my spirit sat back up inside my body and then I became aware of my body and my other senses worked again. My friend had been crying because she thought for sure I was dead because there was no response from me for what seemed like over 5 minutes. I believe that my bodily functions ceased and somehow started again. I cannot say which happened first, body function working first, then spirit reuniting or, reuniting spirit with body causing body functions to return? From the experience, it felt like the later of the two. I can't be sure except to say that "I" was separate from my body. I believe what the lady was saying, it seems to me, death is when your spirit leaves the body.

The body, an ever changing sheath of energy, is destroyed and breaks off into its atomics while consciousness, not in time/space to begin with, continues.

someone , long ago , had the answer I like the best ; ) - “Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.” ― Marcus Aurelius

i have never had nde . before i doubt there is such heaven and afterlife. but now i am 110% believer that there is life after death. i have read many testimonies from around the globe and im 100 percent convinced.

I had a really difficult time listening to the smirking neurologist with his patronizing, sanctimonious remarks about Elvis and half open eye lids to explain how people having NDE out of body experiences can see/hear things going on in other parts of the hospital and relay those conversations/actions later when they've been brought back.

In order to fully understand a near death experience, you have to experience it first hand. It's beyond this physical plane. It feels like home, so much so that I liken it to walking in the desert for three days then finally getting a cool large glass of water. Most do not want to return. The love is like nothing on this planet. For reference it's like a mother falling in love with her newborn babe times ten. The light is undescribable, it is the brightest light ever seen, yet doesn't hurt your eyes. Communication, if you are greeted by other beings, and most are, is telepathic. This type of communication is much more efficient and concise. Is it real, a dream, a hallucination? NO. No exceptions. It is more authentic than your everyday life by far. Recall 20 yrs later is extremely detailed. Every cell in our body knows when death is approaching, when it is a slow death. I believe the consciousness governing each of these cells holds the NDE memory as well, not the brain. Scientists: check into that "JUNK" DNA again. The physical pain is gone. Many people have had more than one NDE in this lifetime. Upon return, many people experience an absolute change in perspectives which is commonly noted as a change in personality. They return with fully developed extra sensory abilities..... NDEs live in the space where science and spirituality meet. Hope this helps.

The spirit leaving the body is not "faith", 15:41, it's fact. Proven, as in one case, by a patient who described a shoe on the roof of the hospital, at an inaccessible point, where she had not been; except during her out of body experience. Thus the finding, verified by the attending physician, was empirically verified. The whole point of NDEs is that the spirit is navigating the experience, in another dimension (thus seeing dead relatives; even those they didn't know existed i.e. siblings) spirit is not faith based. It is spirit.