Corroborated reports: After the Heart stops
Evidence for NDE’s includes some corroborated reports with some limited scientific means of testing and systemising them. We have 4 types of evidence we will use in this case: Almost dead; post-heart stoppage; Post-brain activity and Loved ones whose death was at the time unknown. [1]
A series of Near Death Experiences have been reported after the heart has stopped. This type of evidence is not seen as strong as measurable absence of brain activity; the central nervous system could still affect a NDE while the heart is dying. If the brain had stopped functioning, the patients report of experience could not be due to normal means alone. However, an individual should consider NDE’s heart stoppage seriously, more so if several sources can verify the information that the heart has stopped for an extended period of time.
According to a Russian scientist Negovskii, “Considerable experimental material… indicates that 5-6 minutes is the maximum duration of the state of clinical death which the brain cortex of an adult organism can survive with subsequent recovery of all it’s functions” [1] If you get measurable heartbeat stopping for longer than this time period then you have a more credible NDE.
Case Study: 11 Year old boy
This boy suffered a cardiac arrest, while in hospital and didn’t claim a heartbeat for at least 20 minutes. During this period of time he found himself watching his body from the ceiling, as well as watching the actions and discussion of the doctors and nurses attending to him below. After his recovery, he accurately reported the medical procedures used on him at the time, the locations and colours of the instruments involved in the emergency room, the genders of the medical personnel attending and even retold of their reported conversations. [2]
Case Study: 8 Year old girl
In another case, there is the story of this young girl who was swimming in a pool when she unfortunately got her hair caught in the drain and came close to drowning. Now as someone who’s come close to drowning I get a bit squeamish around these cases, I mean imagine getting caught by the hair and struggling? It’s an unbearable thought! It took 45 minutes of CPR to get this little girl’s heart beating again. However, in the meantime, she stated to doctors that she floated out over her body and visited heaven. In addition to this, despite her condition (remember 45 minutes, more than Negovskii’s 5-6 minutes!), she was able to totally and correctly recount the details from the time the paramedics arrived in her yard through the work performed later in the hospital emergency room. It’s clear that her reports were not just a brief collection of thoughts, but a step-by-step account of the long process of emergency treatment she received by medical staff. [3]
Cardiologist Michael Sabom details three other cases where, post-heart stoppage, patients were able to detail items such as the layout of hospital rooms, precise observations about the instruments in the room, and sometimes even the reading son the dials themselves. Most remarkably was how they gave details of various procedures that applied to them which were considered ‘odd’ or ‘unusual’ practices. [4] Sabom Even prepared ways to verify the accuracy of such reports (See interview part of the case study).
Maurice Rawlings who is also a cardiologist depicts two similar cases. The first, there had not been a heartbeat for a long, unspecified amount of time. This was accompanied with dilated pupils and the absence of a pulse. An EKG later confirmed the lack of heartbeat. Later, the patient correctly identified Rawlings’ suit coat and tie colours, as well as key details of other individuals who had been involved in the resuscitation. While all of this was going on, the patient was in the first day of their four day coma. The second example from Rawlings gives concerns a patient who properly reported similar details, even though this patient had no heartbeat or any observable consciousness. [5]
Sources
- Sabom, Recollections of Death, p.8
- Morse, Closer to the Light, pp. 24-26, 165.
- Morse, Closer to the Light, pp. 32-33.
- Sabom, Recollections of Death, pp. 87-91, 94-99, 105-111.
- Maurice Rawlings, Beyond Death’s door… (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1978), pp. 73-75, 93-95.
