Near death experiences

I had always heard of people having near death experiences. Some said that they saw a light, others that they felt as if they were floating, still others that they were filled with ineffable peace. When Deb Foster died in a La Jolla hospital, she found herself on a stairway surrounded by cats and dogs and mesmerized by a celestial blue sky, the likes of which she had never seen on earth. Mary Clare Schlesinger hovered above her bed in the intensive-care unit, watching her husband and daughter react in shock and fathomless grief at the thought of her passing. Beverly Brodsky said she went on a spectacular journey through a tunnel of intense light, a magic ride with angels and a shapeless God to a place of perfect knowledge, wisdom, truth and justice. Many patients -- a notable study says nearly one in five -- who are revived following cardiac arrest, report memories of their brief time at death's door. They undergo lucid, often indelible experiences, even though they were unconscious, which could be an acute awareness; or moving through a void or tunnel toward bright light; or meeting deceased relatives; or a life review; or feelings of intense joy, profound peace -- a feeling so blissful they longed to remain; and seeing a point of no return.

Recently I too had a near death experience. But I must confess I heard no heavenly choirs or bursts of light during the period I was lost to the world. Actually I felt nothing. From the moment when I was sitting on the edge of my bed wanting to go greet my daughter, who had just returned to our apartment after visiting her friends, to when I found myself lying next to my bed with an anxious para medic peering at me, the intervening period was a complete blank. When I woke up I found my wife and daughter hovering in the back of the room while a team of paramedics from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue squad noted my blood pressure, stuck an intravenous needle in my arm, and repeatedly measured my blood sugar levels, trying to figure out what was wrong. They had responded within minutes of the call. But it had been well over fifteen minutes during which, I was told, I was not responding to any stimuli and was completely out of it; while the hands and eyes were moving, there was no reaction to any questions. It also seemed that my breathing had stopped a number of times and the para medics were preparing to do a last ditch CPR when I woke up. Those fifteen minutes were a complete blank! No bright lights or moving through a void or having my life flash before my eyes.

After a few minutes of dizziness, I was back to normal, quizzing them all about what had happened and why. “Low blood sugar”, I was told was the culprit. A measurement of 30 was a sure sign of hypoglycemia and was due either to an overdose of insulin or a lack of adequate carbohydrates in the day’s meals preceding that night.

Anyway it all ended well as these four very competent young professionals insisted that I go to the nearby hospital to make assurance doubly sure, and where their initial diagnosis of hypoglycemic shock was confirmed by various measurements, and I was released after a few hours of observation. Alas, though, I had no near death experience of mine own to report!