Experience Description


The day after a minor surgery, I was recovering well. I went to use the bathroom and went into arrest while on the toilet.


I don't know how long I was down, but I regained consciousness when I was found, and the nurses were picking me up off the floor. Someone yelled, 'No reps, no bp,' then I was out again. When next I regained consciousness, I was being carried out of the bathroom to my hospital bed, but my point of view wasn't right. I watched five or six nurses carry my big body (three hundred and thirty pounds) out of the bathroom, toss it on the bed, and be joined by four or six other nurses. Some were adjusting the bed so that my feet were up high and my head down low. Someone tore my gown down the front to expose my chest. Someone was putting sticky pads on my chest; someone was on the phone with the surgeon, while someone else called my wife. The whole time, my point of view was still in the bathroom and stationary. It was my body on the bed, but I was standing in the bathroom doorway, watching them work on me. That's when the wind came.


Sometime during the event, a hurricane force wind had entered the room, and it was the coldest wind I have ever felt. (FYI - I was born and raised in northern Canada. I know cold.) I watched them working, and listened to them yelling (despite the wind?). They were trying to get another IV going but couldn't raise a vein (no blood pressure?). Then one of them stuck an IV needle between two of my fingers. Right then they stopped working, and a young male nurse asked someone, 'What's his name?' That's when I re-entered my body. I threw my right arm up into the air and yelled, 'My name is Ryan!' The young guy near the door said, 'He's back.'


My wife arrived a few minutes later and they took me back into surgery.

Background Information:

Gender: Male

Date NDE Occurred: July 25, 2001

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Yes Surgery-related Clinical death The day after a minor surgery, I went into arrest, and was resuscitated by hospital staff.

How do you consider the content of your experience? Disturbing

The experience included: Out of body experience

Did you feel separated from your body? Yes

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? No

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: Darkness

Did you see an unearthly light? No

The experience included: A landscape or city

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? No

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything? No

Did scenes from your past come back to you? My past flashed before me, out of my control

Did scenes from the future come to you? No

Did you come to a border or point of no return? No

God, Spiritual and Religion:

What was your religion prior to your experience? Moderate Lutheran

What is your religion now? Moderate No change

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes I don't want to die and go to that place again.

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? Yes

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? No

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? Best - watching these total strangers work so hard to save me. And seeing that one nurse not give up, when she tried that last time and put that IV needle in between my fingers. Worst - getting a small taste of what is to come, and knowing that it is unpleasant. I'm so afraid of dying now.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes Disbelief.

At any time in your life, has anything ever reproduced any part of the experience? No