Maryann C NDE

Experience Description

I was dying from an allergic reaction to rabies antitoxin. I developed a life threatening case of serum sickness; which makes childbirth pain look like a small tummy cramp relative to the intensity of the pain. I did not know what drugs they gave me, except the one that helped the pain was in a purple-topped syringe and the one they gave me with the red syringe did not hurt as much but it also did not help the pain. The pain was so intense no drug really relived it.

The person next to me in the emergency room behind the curtain was very quiet. I remember wondering who it was and next thing I knew I was floating above the room in the corner. I had three hundred and sixty degree vision, I felt great and felt a light behind me. I also saw on the bed tray above my bed the nurse had prepared another purple and red needle. The table was high so I could not see it lying down. Next thing I knew I was back in bed and in pain. The nurse gave me the purple needle that I saw on the table.

During my recovery, I was recruited to be a candy stripper and have been a nurse since. The color of the caps on the syringes, I found to be significant because there is one standard color for the type of needle. A one and a half inch nineteen-gauge needle is color-coded purple; it would be used for intramuscular shots for narcotic pain medication. The red code is for a smaller needle meant to give steroids. I obtained my medical records when I was twenty-seven years old. I was receiving Demerol, which would have been the purple top, and steroids that would have been the red top. I had no way of knowing the purple top meant anything until I became a nurse. While I was out of body, I saw them on the tray and later when I returned to my body they were still on the tray and I watched the nurse take them off and give them to me.

I have not been able to wear a watch since then that doesn't go dead or runs really slow within a couple weeks or less. I never thought much of the experience, being a teenager it was just like, cool, and I never thought much about it until the interest in near death experiences of others started to appear. I really don't think it was the Demerol because if you recall the nurse gave me an injection soon after I was back in my body. So any previous doses would have been getting weak. I know it was not a dream either. I just remember it as cool. I was not afraid.

Background Information:

Gender: Female

Date NDE Occurred: April 1967

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Yes Allergic reaction Life threatening event, but not clinical death It was a serum sickness reaction to rabies antitoxin. My parents were told I would not survive. After the experience I recovered quite quickly - within two weeks.

How do you consider the content of your experience? Positive

The experience included: Out of body experience

Did you feel separated from your body? Yes Seemed to be able to hear better, could see all over three hundred and sixty degrees, but otherwise business as usual in the emergency room, but they could not see me floating up in the corner of the room.

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? Very alert, severe pain, meds were hardly touching. Serum sickened cause plaques of collagen to be deposited in organs, joints, muscle. There is no place on your body that anyone can touch, even gently, without making the person scream in pain and agony, not one spot! Childbirth, I have had four natural child births, is child's play (and we know that it is not) compared to this pain.

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning Sort of felt time was at a standstill for me but not for anyone else. I also had no body. The emergency room staff was all running around doing their jobs.

Did you pass into or through a tunnel? No

Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased (or alive) beings? No

The experience included: Light

Did you see an unearthly light? Yes There was a bright light way up in the corner of the ceiling, it seemed far away and I became more interested in what I could see in the emergency room from floating above. Then I didn't notice what happened to it. Soon I was back in my body. The whole experience felt like about three minutes.

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? A clearly mystical or unearthly realm Just could really see activity all over the emergency room, over the bed curtains etc.

The experience included: Special Knowledge

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything? No Being thirteen, I thought it was cool, something that happened to everyone who gets sick and my parents just forgot to tell me about it. I thought it was normal.

Did scenes from your past come back to you? My past flashed before me, out of my control I was recruited while in the hospital to be a volunteer and have been in the nursing field twenty-one years some of that as an registered nurse - I am forty-nine now. It is interesting I cannot wear a watch. As a nurse, I need one, but even the best watches stopped working, so I just gave up and keep it in my pocket. I recently read that many people with near death experiences have this same difficulty with watches.

Did scenes from the future come to you? No

Did you come to a border or point of no return? No Just suddenly was back but feeling much better.

God, Spiritual and Religion:

What was your religion prior to your experience? Moderate

What is your religion now? Moderate

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes Developed empathy at a very young age.

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? Uncertain I just thought it was a normal thing that happened because I was so young. It was cool but when I came back, I was still sick so I just never mentioned it. I just assumed this was something that could happen to everyone. I was impressed but I was thirteen. It was 'neat' that was all it meant to me then, and I never really talked to anyone about it until many years later, although it is as fresh in my mind as the day it happened. It also made me not to afraid to die if my actions in life please the Lord. At thirteen there is very little sin, you could have done to keep you out of heaven. I assume I felt the beginnings of what happens when you go to that place we think of as heaven. What concerns me now is that I am an adult, I am not so innocent, and what will I see and feel the next time if my soul is not as pure as a thirteen year old.

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Yes I feel I have un-nurtured psychic power or some gift I haven't quite been able to bring to fruition. I feel things that will happen even though I am not sure what I feel. For example, I looked at a picture of Princess Diana enjoying herself with Dodie in one of those 'Enquirer' tabloids. I got the weirdest feeling someone was going to kill her. I could not shake it no matter how I tried. I felt it had something to do with a conspiracy to make sure Diana never married him as he would be unacceptable. Several weeks later, she was dead and I along with Dodie's father will never be convinced this was not a very well planned and executed assassination. This is just one example but it is not something I can try to do, it just happens.

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? It was a great experience, nothing negative except I didn't share with anyone for many years.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes Most people go, 'Oh yeah,' and drop it.

At any time in your life, has anything ever reproduced any part of the experience? Yes I had a very brief experience when giving birth to my fourth child. His cord was severely wrapped around his neck and I was pushing and in much pain for four hours. It only took me two hours to dilate for delivery but I could not push him out. I briefly felt myself leaving my body and wanting to run down the hall but I realized I could not do that and was back. I had no drugs for my kid's birth.