Don S NDE

Experience Description

It was roughly twelve hours since I was admitted in a hospital for injuries resulting from an auto accident. I was battered and bruised and had several deep lacerations that had been repaired. I was able to get out of bed, with the use of crutches, for a bathroom visit. My pelvis was cracked in several places so the crutches were needed to compensate.

The crutches were too long and rather than adjusting them, I simply stretched my arms up to reach them. Within roughly two hours after returning to bed, I woke up sweating profusely. I paged the nurse. It was about 2:00 am. She checked my blood pressure several times and ran from the room. I later found out my blood pressure was very low and falling and the nurse (the only nurse on duty at this small hospital) went to call for help.

Sometime shortly after this event, I passed out/went to sleep. I have no chronology of events at this point in time. But I slowly began to very clearly see my hospital room from above. It's like I was high enough in the air to see all four corners of this small room clearly, along with its contents, of course. This picture didn't just pop into view, it slowly became bright and clear, much like a movie will sometime do, very slowly fade from black to a bright and clear picture.

Along with all contents of the room, I also saw myself lying in bed. I had no concept of time, it just wasn't a factor. I watched myself a while, then took note of how funny the nurse looked from above. She was wearing one of those little hats nurses seem to all wear in the 1970's. She was again taking my blood pressure and seemed to be very concerned since she was doing it over and over. This nurse happened to be the mother of one of my uncles and had lost a nephew only a week before in a motorcycle accident.

After a while, I saw a male burst into my room. He slammed the door back, he appeared to be running. I recognized his face as a local doctor and friend of mine, although not my personal doctor. My personal doctor was a few paces behind him. I saw my friend the doctor pull the sheets from me exposing my bare feet.

About this time, I saw a nurse run in with a bag of some kind of liquid. I later found out it was a bag of whole blood. I had never seen a bag of blood before, only the glass containers of that era.

My friend the doctor wiped one of my ankles with a liquid and made a cut with a scalpel. He inserted what I thought was a small tube, several inches in length. As he fumbled with the bag of blood, my doctor put a couple of stitches in the cut my friend just made.

Shortly, my doctor attached the bag to a tube that extended down to my ankle. I could clearly see this. I could almost read the time on the doctor’s watch, but not quite. My friend, the doctor, then picked up the bag and squeezed it between his hands forcing the contents into my ankle rapidly.

It was at that moment, my clear view of the event began to sparkle. The sparkling became more intense and finally the entire picture was blank white. A few seconds later, the white began to darken and I was looking up at the ceiling and light fixture in my room from my bed. I could see both doctors standing at the foot of my bed still working with that bag.

Within moments, they began wheeling me down the hall in my bed. A nurse was shaving my chest on the fly. I was on an operating table within a few minutes, the gas passer put the mask on my face and I was out.

Later I found out that I had hit the steering wheel with my chest. My ribs had been torn loose from the sternum in the process. The ends of the ribs had hit together beneath my sternum when they broke loose and the ends of several were splintered, leaving sharp jagged pieces sticking out. It was one of these jagged edges that put an inch long gash in my aorta and ripped one lung. I had pumped myself dry and filled the chest cavity with blood. It took about ten pints to replace all lost. This damage simply didn't show up in the x-rays taken. The ribs had jumped back into their normal position and the lung damage was at a weird angle and didn't show up either.

Background Information:

Gender: Male

Date NDE Occurred: 'Sept. 24, 1974'

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Yes Accident 'Life threatening event, but not clinical death' . There was internal bleeding.

How do you consider the content of your experience? Positive

The experience included: Out of body experience

Did you feel separated from your body? No

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? Even after the event was over and I had much time to reflect, I still felt as if I was full awake and totally aware of my surroundings during the experience.

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? No

Did your hearing differ in any way from normal? Nothing unusual. Just normal sounds of the event.

Did you pass into or through a tunnel? No

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

Did you see an unearthly light? No

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? A clearly mystical or unearthly realm I have no memory of taste, smell or touch. I could see and hear everything. Realistically, I couldn't have tasted, smelled or touched anything if I were actually high in my room anyway.

What emotions did you feel during the experience? No emotion. It was like watching a movie. As a matter of fact, it was somewhat funny to me since I was seeing all events as if I were above my head.

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

The experience included: Boundary

Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure? Yes Although I couldn't see above me, my height above the hospital room was fixed. The view did not change.

God, Spiritual and Religion:

What was your religion prior to your experience? Moderate

What is your religion now? Moderate

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? No

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? There are no bad parts. I'm actually glad it happened, it helped open my mind to events others depicted in years to come.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes A few times with a few very close friends years later. They fully believed me and had knowledge of some event that occurred to a family member in years past.

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

Are there any other questions that we could ask to help you communicate your experience? None as far as my experience is concerned.