Tommy G NDE

Experience Description

Growing up in a small town without siblings sometimes means you pursue friendships with your cousins, especially when your mother has nine siblings. My mother’s sister was having problems with an abusive husband, so my grandfather moved her, my “destined-to-be-a-hero” cousin, and her sister into a house next to his.

We were close to the same age, so we visited often. To this day, I still use her cool nickname, “Mert,” instead of Mary Ann. Mert was the sister I never had.

Before either of us was married, we would visit each other. During the summer of 1984, my mother and my aunt wanted me to check on her, and I could not wait to go hang out with her.

Mert had gotten a new job as a potter at an artist colony in Farmington, Georgia. It was her second job since graduating with a fine arts degree. She had an old car and no telephone. Cell phones were not part of our world yet. She also had two adorable puppies that loved to play.

For several rainy days, I helped her straighten up the cabin. We planned to drive into Athens, a city about an hour from Farmington, on the third day.

She told me that before I arrived, she had found a baby rattlesnake in the garden she had planted. I did a quick inspection of the inside and outside of the cabin, but I was not thorough enough. I am an Eagle Scout, and I should have been much more meticulous in my search.

Our trip to a shrimp restaurant in Athens was filling. When we returned, we were in a Bob Dylan mood. I sat down with his “Blood on the Tracks” album and began rereading the liner notes for the umpteenth time.

OUCH!

It felt as though a hot knife had stabbed me near my neck in my right trapezius muscle. The trapezius is one of the muscles connecting the shoulder and back area and helping support the head.

I spun around and parted the slit in the drapes. I saw a brown and black coil.

The coil rattled.

My cousin had been hit in the eye with a softball as a child and had almost no vision in her left eye. Her car was not very fast, and I had recently purchased a Z-28 Camaro. I knew I was in trouble.

As a Boy Scout first aid instructor who had been trained in snakebite rescue, I understood that a bite to the torso was serious. I gave Mert my keys and wallet and told her, “You’re Steve McQueen. We don’t have a phone, and we’re in the country. Just get me to a farmhouse.”

It took about ten minutes for what I called “the transformation” to begin.

Rattlesnake venom works on the blood in a slow and insidious way. My white blood cells were fighting the intrusion, and my tissues began to swell.

I smoked Marlboro Reds at the time, and I nervously lit a cigarette. The smoke caught in my throat because my throat was beginning to swell shut.

In my head, I told God that if I lived, I would never smoke those foul things again. Except for a slight lapse about ten years later, I have kept that promise.

The next wave of terror was vomiting. When your throat swells to a certain point, vomiting becomes projectile.

I managed to keep it out of the interior of my car. By this time, however, Mert had driven my Z-28 into a farmer’s front yard. The vomit was everywhere.

At first, Mert’s attempts to alert the farmer and his wife were ignored. The second time, the farmer and his wife came outside and witnessed my fountain-like vomiting. That convinced them something was seriously wrong.

The farmer called 911.

I still have the letter he and his wife wrote to my parents after they learned that I had survived.

When the rescue squad arrived, one emergency medical technician tried to apply an Enswell, a super-cooled metal device used to reduce swelling, to my trapezius muscle. I pushed it away because I was afraid it would localize the venom. I do not know whether that would have mattered by then.

The hour-long drive to St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens seemed like a slow fade to black.

Between episodes of projectile vomiting, the lead emergency medical technician kept asking whether I could breathe. He stood ready with an emergency airway knife near my throat in case he needed to open my airway.

Mert and I should have killed the snake and brought it with us, but that was the last thing on our minds.

Before I could receive antivenom, the emergency room doctor needed to determine what kind of rattlesnake had bitten me. Hospitals in the South carry limited supplies of different antivenoms. In northern Georgia, the main rattlesnakes include timber, pygmy, and eastern diamondback rattlesnakes.

I continued vomiting all over the room and struggling to breathe while the medical team determined that I had been bitten by a timber rattlesnake.

By this time, all my clothes had been cut off. The entire room was filled with some of the worst odors imaginable.

I lost control of all my bodily functions while the staff waited for the antivenom.

Then a very deliberate sense of quiet and peacefulness enveloped me.

Slowly, my ethereal self began floating upward. Far above me, I saw what appeared to be a womb-like depression. I was slowly approaching it. I also noticed very bright twinkles and glints of light coming from different directions. They seemed to be approaching the same indentation.

I have no idea how long this lasted.

As I continued rising, I decided for some reason to turn around and say goodbye to my old self.

The old me looked misshapen and ugly.

I had worked in television and film all my life and had always appreciated compelling art direction. Even during this experience, I noticed the awful green and white tile on the floor beneath my old self. I found its design disgusting.

I became content with continuing this new way of life and kept rising.

I became slightly conscious again when I felt a male nurse washing the vile fluids from my skin. I could hear him quietly cursing under his breath.

The snake had apparently been so starved that it had emptied its venom sac into me.

I received twelve ampules of antivenom. Nine more were flown into Athens for me that night.

The treatment process was slow. The medical staff used both of my arms. Because the antivenom was very caustic, it had to be introduced into my system gradually.

I was still in a fog. I saw my family members, ministers, teachers, and friends from throughout my twenty-six years of life. They appeared almost like pieces of a tapestry.

I remember the doctor telling me that I could call anyone I wanted to say goodbye. A large group of doctors had gathered around me.

I later learned that they were especially concerned because they had never treated a snakebite victim with wounds so close to the brain.

I think I called some telephone numbers that I could remember, although it is possible that I imagined doing so.

The doctors continued hovering around me.

I spent four days in the intensive care unit and another three days in a regular hospital room at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens.

Afterward, my parents came to get me and took me back to Cleveland, Tennessee.

Mert and Dr. Thomas saved my life.

The doctor explained that time and God had been on my side that night.

He also warned me that because antivenom was produced using antibodies derived from animals such as sheep and horses, I might become sick again in about a month. Mine had been produced using a horse.

He told me to be prepared to have someone take me immediately to an emergency room if that happened, because I might need epinephrine and steroids. I was even given a special card containing those instructions.

After more time recovering, I drove back to Knoxville.

Sure enough, while I was working as a television producer, I began feeling what I jokingly called the “werewolf transformation” returning.

I tossed the keys to my Z-28 to my assistant, and he drove me to the nearest emergency room.

Oddly enough, that Knoxville hospital, which is now long gone, was also named St. Mary’s.

My cousin Mert never returned to the cabin.

A veterinarian in Athens rescued both dogs. They had also been bitten by the snake, but they suffered few adverse effects. I had apparently received the lion’s share of the venom.

The veterinarian also captured the snake and turned it over to the University of Georgia to help produce more antivenom.

Mert’s friends gathered her belongings, and she moved somewhere else.

The late Paul Harvey and United Press International reported me as a fatality. The Associated Press got my age wrong, but at least they reported that I was alive.

Every day is a holiday, and every meal is a banquet.

Background Information:

Gender: Male

Date of NDE: 08/02/1984

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Yes
While visiting my cousin's cabin in northern Georgia, a three-day summer rain event melted into genuine horror film territory. A thick Timber Rattlesnake, a "three footer", was in the cabin with us on that third, fateful day, and probably had been in the house for days. It's a fallacy that rattlers warn you with a rattle first...

How do you consider the content of your experience? Entirely pleasant

Did you feel separated from your body? I clearly left my body and existed outside it

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness? On the emergency room table before I started to "float."

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness? Less consciousness and alertness than normal

Were your thoughts speeded up? No

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning
I had no way to perceive any time segment.

Were your senses more vivid than usual? Incredibly more vivid

Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience I can't see irregular "cloud-like" shapes with cavernous indentations in normal life (and star-like entities headed toward the indentation).

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience I don't remember sensing anything heard, more of a silence.

Did you seem to be aware of things going on elsewhere? No

Did you pass into or through a tunnel? No

Did you see any beings in your experience? No

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

Did you see or feel surrounded by a brilliant light? No

Did you see an unearthly light? Yes
More like stars in variant perspectives to my viewpoint, heading, like me, toward a womb-like entrance to a sky-based cloud-like entity.

Did you seem to enter another world? No

What emotions did you feel during the experience? Total ecstasy.

Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness? Incredible peace or pleasantness

Did you have a feeling of joy? Incredible joy

Did you feel a sense of harmony or unity with the universe? No

Did you suddenly understand everything? No

Did scenes from your past come back? My past flashed before me, out of my control
A tapestry of faces and times all scrolling past vertically, like an old school Rolodex.

Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure? 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? Christian - Protestant

Have your religious practices changed? No

What is your religion now? Christian - Protestant

Did your experience include features consistent with your earthly beliefs? Content that was entirely not consistent with the beliefs you had at the time of your experience
I had personified beliefs regarding the afterlife, and nothing matched the religious belief system I had held dear for so long. "God is love" became more important than images of Jesus with a beard. I believe once you cross over, everything that follows will be revealed as being very different from what most pundits had led us to believe.

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes
The afterlife is like human life. It's a new way of living, and the ethereality will be instantly embraced.

Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence, or hear an unidentifiable voice? No

Did you encounter or become aware of any beings who previously lived on earth who are described by name in religions (for example: Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.)? No

During your experience, did you gain information about premortal existence? No

During your experience, did you gain information about universal connection or oneness? Yes
It led me to believe the star-like objects were evidence that we are all bright fields of energy.

During your experience, did you gain information about the existence of God? No

Concerning our Earthly lives other than Religion:

During your experience, did you gain special knowledge or information about your purpose? No

During your experience, did you gain information about the meaning of life? No

During your experience, did you gain information about an afterlife? No

Did you gain information about how to live our lives? No

During your experience, did you gain information about life's difficulties, challenges and hardships? No

During your experience, did you gain information about love? Yes
Inexplicable wellspring of good feeling and love.

What life changes occurred in your life after your experience? Moderate changes in my life
I counseled a snakebite victim while my late dad was in the hospital for a heart attack. I do videos for families whose kin have passed. I help a scout troop with merit badge instruction. I did pro bono work for the homeless (capital campaign videos, serving food).

Have your relationships changed specifically because of your experience? No

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? No

How accurately do you remember the experience in comparison to other life events that occurred around the time of the experience? I remember the experience more accurately than other life events that occurred around the time of the experience
Because my cousin experienced the more objective facets of my snakebite, I can couple those with my subjective ones and have a fairly accurate snapshot.

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? Reversing my cousin's career pathway. She left art and just retired as an RN after going back to school for a nursing degree.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes
I was interviewed in the hospital for a newspaper article.

Did you have any knowledge of near death experience (NDE) prior to your experience? No

What did you believe about the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened? Experience was definitely real
The detailed "look" of the starfield and their collective progression/march toward the cloud-like womb in the sky.

What do you believe about the reality of your experience now? Experience was definitely real
Not a day goes by that I don't envision the whole experience.

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

Did the questions asked and information that you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience? Yes
Nicely intricate. No stone unturned.

Anything else to add? My cousin is retired now, but every August 2nd I thank her for my rebirth!