Anyone else ever have a near death experience?

I nearly drowned when I was about 5 or 6 years old. My parents and another couple were staying at a resort on the Kankakee river just east of Momence, Illinois. About 7 miles due south of where I am at right now.

It was my brother and I and the other couples three kids. We all drove to town for food or something and it was hot as hell that day. All us kids were betting each other who would make it back to the beach first to cool off.

I was the first one there. The beach for swimming was to the left and the boat docks in deeper water were a few yards to the right. I went in too far to the right.

I can remember being in water over my head but not panicking at all. My dad said he walked up and all he could see was my hair floating just below the water. He reached down and pulled me out.

Not sure how long I was there? Maybe a half a minute? Perhaps longer? I do remember telling everyone immediately after I came to that I remembered watching my short previous life flashing before my eyes. And this is before I had ever heard of others reporting such a thing. It was like watching a black and white film being run at high speed backward.

That is all I remember. No white lights, no spirits, nothing else. Just my past life being played at high speed in reverse like it was on a newsreel in my brain.

Don

Edit: This happened somewhere around 1960 to 1961.

My heart stopped for about a minute when I was 10.

On Edit: Dammit, I hit send without sending the rest.

I had some kind of heart-attack when I was 10. I was born with a hole in my heart, it's since cleared up. But I still had it when I was 10 and it led to the incident. I don't remember too much about it, but my parents filled me in about what happened.

When I was 16 I had a water-skiing incident as well, that could have resulted in death.

or so the doctors told me when i was a kid, and i too apparently croaked momentarily while in surgery. weird.

How odd...but it's fascinating too. I remember nothing from that minute, I've told people before and they've said "So did you see a bright light or whatever people are supposed to see?"

And I can't remember what I saw, so I suppose I saw nothing.

i think i was about 6. i awoke during surgery, and they slapped a rag soaked in ether on my face, i remember doctors and nurses getting real nervous and scrambling around frantically. they told me later that i'd been declared about the time i awoke.

I was gonna die, but no bright lights...just survival instincts, a wretched memory of events that is both crisp and blurry at the same time, and afterward, that gut-wrench and a bit of the quiet shakes. Then comes the pushing it all aside, and going on!

that owed them money. it took me 15 minutes to convince them i wasn't who they thought i was. close call.

Is as close as I've come

and my family should go bowling. Sounds like they'd get along famously.

fsc

Amazingly, they were very calming, sort of like, I don't need to stress over the small shit anymore cause it no longer matters. Very peaceful.

I don't remember the thought of death ever crossing my mind. I might have been in shock? I don't know?

Don

and that, just like you said, tmfun, they change people's perspectives forever. Hardly anything really matters in the big scheme of things; most of us realize this to a certain extent (when we bother to remind ourselves, which is hard to do sometimes), but people who've had profound experiences like yours often have a crystal clear understanding of what's truly important and what isn't.

what my mother described when she almost drowned as a child.

born with a kidney infection, damn near killed me. had surgery for it. age two contracted polio, damn near killed me, left leg atrophied. age 15, head on collision with mustang, damn near killed me, lost almost all my blood, 400 plus stitches in my face, glass in eyes, years of plastic surgery. age 44, heart attack, damn near killed me. oh, and age 29, fell off 12 foot spillway on my skull, damn near killed me.

before he kills ya! :D

Whatta life. Or whatta near death. Or something like that.

kept here, to make a difference.

That's more near-death than anyone should have until it is his time. Here's hoping you remain on your path and it is as successful a journey as it is meant to be.

or the tv show "The Immortal".

I have been near death several times in my youth. The worst was when I had a burst appendix and developed peritonitis. I was operated on and anti-biotics and my own strength as a healthy fifteen year old pulled me through. But, I'll tell you before they wheeled me into the operating room, the pain was so bad I wanted to die.

The first I don't remember because I was a newborn. My mother was nursing me, but I guess I was suffering from failure to thrive because her milk wasn't nutritious. This was in South America and they didn't have infant formula and stuff like that so eventually the doctor figured out that a change in my feeding was needed. I was given to a wet nurse and survived.

Last one was an airplane that almost crashed in the Andes. The plane had lost two engines and the mountains got closer and closer. The pilot warned us he was trying to get to a landing strip that was close by, but said he didn't know if he would make it. The bouncing was stomach turning. We made it to the landing strip, but not before many of us had said our prayers and peed in our pants.

on that last one, Cleita. Glad you made it. After that, I probably wouldn't be venturing near an airport for the remainder of my existence on earth.

fsc

then it's always near death.

I have parkinsons and on some mornings I cannot move for the life of me. It's like living rigor mortis. However what is worse than is when my throats stiff as well. I have to be very careful with my breathing or not panic other wise i start choking violently. Thankfuly my throat is stiff like that about once every two weeks. I know its probably not what you wanted to hear but once i start panicking its really not a good feeling.

My dad had Parkinson's and he used to panic like you said and my mother always had to help him get over it. I hope you are getting the medication you need. I understand that the meds are better now than in my dad's day.

The meds are better but way pricey. Also I am going to ask my neuro if i can switch to requip. The miraprex i am now taking not only put alot of pounds back on me but is giving me a nasty staff infection.
The trade off is it's made me more aware, and driven to find a disease (fundies not withstand) and of course having me meet all the wonderful, compassionate people here on DU. You guys give me hope on my bad days :hug:

Did that LTTE get published that some of us helped you polish?



Keith’s Barbeque Central

I saw an anti stem cell letter two days ago in the herald so I haven't given up hope. I check the paper every day and as soon as it's published i promise to link you to the page.

Anytime I hear of anyone making it through the kind of adversity you have been through it makes proud to know the person. You are one tough sonofagun. I feel honored to know you. Take care for now and see you later.

Don

you fight for me I fight for you. We'll overcome the fundies. I promise. Danny

hang tough

Hey if nothing else it give us the cause to play the blues ala BB King and diabetes.

The closest I ever came was watching Mondale lose to Reagan and then seeing the red/blue map in 1984.

:P

went way down.

It was a school function where we all went to the beach when I was 7 years old. I went in the water over my head with a big wave and felt myself pulled under. I had my own short life replay...and knew I was in trouble but didn't panic. All of a sudden a hand pulled me up and out. I recognized the person as one of my classmates (not one I was particularly friendly with) and she moved away as if nothing had happened.

A few years later I ran into her and asked her if she knew she saved my life? She looked at me like I was crazy and when I related the incident that she had pulled me out of the water when I knew I was going to drown , she said: "I didn't do that!"

I've never known what to make of that incident but it's stayed with me all these years. I was ready to drown and the person who saved me didn't remember it. I've often wondered if it wasn't "HER" then who was it?? :shrug: But...I know it happened....someone saved me..because I couldn't swim, saw that water all above and over me. and I was very small and had gulped water and just knew that I couldn't get myself out...

If you remember?

Don

like the color of the water in rapid time... I remember thinking of my dog and my mom and toys and things but it was all fast... and some things floating in the water at the same time..but like you say in rapid play. So if I had to say it was colorless like the water I thought I was going to drown in. That's what I remember.

way we see things (except maybe in twilight)

who grew up with b/w tv. My hypothesis is that the generation who have grown up strictly with color tv will find all those people who swear they dream in b/w are NUTS.

lost most of the blood in my body by the time they got me to the hospital. My mother grabbed the delivery guy from the pharmacy and made him drive us to the hospital. I was completely unconscious but can tell you everything that was happening. I was watching from an upper and slightly behind position. What would have been outside the top of the car really but not in my view. I was very calm while watching all the chaos around me. At one point I remember walking away into a cloudy space through what would have been a wall and all of a sudden knowing that it wasn't my time and turning around. The next thing I knew I was waking up with the foot of my bed elevated and craving a cigarette.

Nearly choked to death at age ten on a hot dog (believe it or not I gave myself the Heimlich maneuver) and nearly hit by a train at age 13. I learned nothing.

on edit: been shot at a few times, but nothing serious.

My mom went shopping for grocers while I was doing my swimming on the team.

Here comes me, barreling down the stretch in a mock race, full blown crawlstroke.

Then, WHAM!

The others didn't realize what was going on, so they kept racing. My swim teacher's assistant realized me just floating there, face down, stunned, and ran over to me and pulled me out.

I had been stunned, and my head hurt like I had downed three jaeger bombs, a white russian, and then gotten into a fight.

in a friend's swimming pool. I was fairly young...around 7...and didn't know about the deep end.

All I remember was looking down on people getting me out, and trying to revive me. I don't remember a life review, any other presences around me, nor any sort of light.

I do believe there is more to life than our physical bodies, but I didn't have a flash of insight or anything of that nature. Then again, even if I did, being so young I don't think I would have understood it.

and flipped it, i coded out for what they said was 6 min

Didn't have any flashbacks but time just slooowwwed down....

Me and my sister were driving along the highway, hit a patch of something slick and suddenly we were weaving from one side of the highway to the other...but all in slow motion. It was very very very strange. Then at the point when I think we probably would have rolled, I hit the brakes and everything speeded back to normal time and we did a 180 and ended up backwards in the snowbank on the side of the road.

My cat was in my lap the whole time and never moved.

I think we could have died but didn't so no newsreel of my life. But that slow down of time stays with me still.

2) Blood disease at age 14 (parents said they thought I had turned into a ghost)

3) The one in 1972 that I don't want to talk about.

4) Anaphylactic shock from 4 hornet stings at age 36.

5) Two others. I never learn.

Redstone

In the mid '80s while driving my little Datsun to Laughlin on a very dangerous two lane road at past midnight. Luckily the road had the warning bumps when I crossed the center line and that woke me up. Simultaneously I heard the horn blare of a huge rig heading straight toward me. I didn't panic and had just enough time to steer the car back into the right lane before the truck passed. It was incredibly fortunate that truck wasn't 200 yards closer when I fell asleep.

I was on vacation in Mendocino with my mom and there had been a rabbit in the house the week before. I'm really allergic to rabbits, and my asthma was getting worse and worse.

Finally I decided it was time to go to the ER. We got there around 9, and I was the only patient there. The doctor put the pulse oxymeter on my finger and said I was doing fine.... 99% saturated. I insisted that I wasn't fine... I was feeling terrible.

But the doctor hemmed and hawed and started me on breathing treatments, about one an hour because he didn't really believe I was sick. Between the treatments he left me alone. I asked for oxygen to breathe between the treatments and he said no, I didn't need it because I was fully saturated. I kept insisting that the machine was broken, and he got another machine that also said 99%.

Finally, after about 5 hours of this BS, I was feeling worse than ever because I was tired out. I got mad at him and was really pushing him to be more aggressive with the treatments. I've had 8 in a row before, and it's not fun, but it did the job.

Dr Asshole finally decided that I was suffering from anxiety and he decided to give me Ativan. In the PDR under Ativan, it says in big all caps letters: DO NOT GIVE TO PATIENTS WITH RESPIRATORY DISTRESS. After giving me the Ativan, he ordered me wheeled on a stretcher to the ICU so they could keep an eye on me through the night.

By the time I got down the hall, I was purple and NOT BREATHING AT ALL. I passed out sometime before we got there, so my mom told me what happened.

The ICU nurses saved my life, but they were very worried. One of them told my mom to call the rest of the family because I might not make it. They checked my blood gasses, which is more accurate than the oxymeter, and I was really only around 65% saturated, which is terrible.

My recollections are really hazy. I remember being really cold, wet, and thirsty. I also remember thinking I was going to die, and thinking that that was sad, because I'd just gotten really nice binoculars and I hadn't had the chance to enjoy them. But I remember being very peaceful with the idea of dying.

Of course I didn't die, but I felt physically awful for weeks afterward. I think a lot of cells throughout my body died.

About two years later I was on the train going cross country and the woman at breakfast with me was a rep for a company that made pulse oxymeters! Her job was to go and train doctors and nurses how to use them properly. I told her what had happened, and she said that one of the things she really impresses in her training sessions is that it's accurate at the upper levels, but when the oxygen gets too low, it starts reading carbon dioxide as oxygen.

The oxygen levels in my blood were too low for the machine to even read.