Be Still My Heart

"... did anyone ever die for a few minutes and come back?" Was asked in a cancer group. https://www.emaxhealth.com/1/recent-near-death-experiences-cancer-patients

The article is on cancer and fear of death.

I don't have cancer. I had a minor car accident and stroke almost 15 years ago. Bleeding in my head nearly killed me. Actually, it did kill me and I was revived. That's a different way of saying my heart stopped.

Initially I was told that my heart never stopped. I was believing this until I read the medical records. During the initial surgery to stop the bleeding in my head, my heart stopped. Records only say "blood pressure and hypothermia were resuscitated."

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I was curious how long I was without a heartbeat. I wondered how long I was in surgery. I could have been without heartbeat a few minutes to a few hours. I messaged my mother. Her answer was more than I asked for.

It seemed like 13 to 14 hours. I met the surgeon outside the steps of the trauma hospital. We drove directly from the beach in Santa Cruz to Roseville 5 or 6 hours. Got there about 8 pm ? I signed the consent and you were in there all night until after 8 or 9 in the morning. You stayed in the trauma center for 30 days and were barely alive. I stayed with you. The first week you had a doctor in your room 24/7. You went through total body shock and the doctor did some weird experimental stuff and reversed the shock by running all your systems backwards and changing your body chemistry. He was some kind of genius that they couldn't explain all the things he was trying and he paced all around your bed like Dr. Frankenstein. Talking to himself and yelling orders.  He was a gruff looking man who seemed like a mad scientist.

So, it could have been quite a few hours that I was without a heartbeat. To any medical providers, does any of this sound familiar? I'm not sure how systems were reversed. To the original providers, I am obviously not dead. I am not vegetative, although I am classed that way. I don't speak a lot, and you get more from me typing with one finger.

7-14-2020

Reversing blood flow techniques for stroke treatment now exist. These procedures were experimental and only an idea when I had my stroke.

The Medical Records of a Horror Story

I obtained my initial medical records. I knew something was amiss. My initial Glasgow coma score (an initial score of consciousness) was very low. It was 3. The lowest you can get while still alive is a 3.

Recently I re-read the initial hospital transfer record. I knew it said resuscitated, but I wanted to see how the word was used. "Resuscitation" is bringing someone back to life. CPR is cardiopulmonary resuscitation. If someone has a heart attack, you want to get their heart beating again so you do CPR. You are essentially bringing that person back to life. I wanted the whole context of the word used.

I was stunned when I read the sentence, "The patient's blood pressure and hypothermia was resuscitated." Blood pressure is restarting the heart, but I couldn't believe "hypothermia" was also done. Hypothermia is when your body temperature is below normal. My body was cold.

So I was cold and had no heartbeat. Isn't that a cadaver? I had to look that up. A cadaver is a dead human body ready for dissection.

"Hypothermia was resuscitated," would mean a cold, dead body is brought back to normal body temperature. Not only was my heart restarted, but my body was warmed back up.

Restarting a heart and warming up a corpse has been done in fiction. Now it's in real life.

Why it was decided to revive me as opposed to sending me to the morgue I do not know. For everyone who says "You are lucky to be alive," I can answer, "I'm supposed to be dead. YOU are lucky I am alive."

Updated  11/2/2016