August 5, 2010

• Have you ever had a near-death experience? How close have you come to dying?

  When I was 23, I started bleeding for no apparent reason.  I stood up from my bed and a large amount of blood and clots dropped out.  I had no pain or other signs of anything being wrong.  I called my mom, then the ambulance.  While in my apartment the paramedics could not get a blood pressure on me, nor could they find a vein to start an IV. On the way to the hospital (with lights and sirens) they put me in MAST pants and told me to let them know if I was getting sleepy.  Well, I got sleepy twice on the way and they inflated the pants and I came around.  When I got to ER, the doctors and nurses were working hard to get an IV in.  During a more lucid moment I suggested they try my left arm again and on the third attempt in that arm(after 12 tries in my right arm) they finally got a blood return.  I remember thinking, “Now I can relax.” So I did.  But on my way to total relaxation, I told them to inflate the MAST pants again.  The next thing I knew, I was looking down on the room and saw the team working on me.  Then I looked up, past the ceiling tiles and saw a light, beckoning me.  I told myself “go to the light” and did.  I remember hearing the doctor in charge saying, “We’re losing her.”  Then one of the nurses started crying and said, “She’s my age.” As I was slowly floating to the light I came to a halfway point, a sort of holding room.  My late grandfather was there with a man and woman who seemed to be a couple.  Grandpa said, “Sherry, these are your grandparents, your father’s parents.  We came here to tell you that you need to go back down there and fight for your life.  It is not your time yet.  You have important things to do.  Please let your grandma know I am fine and I can wait for her.” I asked a few questions that I can’t recall now and Grandpa answered then said, “You need to go back now.”  The next thing I knew, I was back in my body and the doctor was saying, “I think she’s coming around.” 
  I was in the hospital three days and had many transfusions.  The bleeding stopped all of a sudden and the doctors never had a real good reason for my hemorrhage, but I have had a history of ovarian cysts since then and it was suggested, among other things, that one burst. I did not share this with anyone until about six months later and I told my mom.  When she didn’t act like I was completely looney, I described the couple and she confirmed that they were probably my paternal grandparents.  Just getting the story out to someone and having them believe me helped a lot.  I then let my grandma know what Grandpa had said and from time to time over the years she would ask me to tell her the story again.  She said it gave her comfort.

     

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  • 4:31 pm
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