My Near Death Story

Ephesians 6:4 (King James Version)

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

God had a very interesting thing happen at my annual heart appointment which is normal for someone with a pacemaker/defibrillator in their chest. After they checked out the pacemaker and health of the heart the final piece is talking to the doctor and now the medical assistant who was a young girl around thirty with a few tattoos with nose and lip rings.

She was an attractive young girl who was obviously on the liberal side of the scale and mentioned her partner in passing. She checked my heart and lungs and was surprised of the health for a guy 71 yrs old although it is pretty common when you are dealing with fellow heart patients there are lots on people with heart and lung issues in very bad condition.

She axed the usual questions as she went through the file about my walking and golf regimen since my doctor had left it in the file and he was about to retire and wanted to take up golf himself. She finally mentioned about the last time I had been there with my heart issue and seemed interested like most healthcare workers of a miracle survival.

Six years ago, Memorial Day I woke up dead. My wife Marilyn heard a noise in my office and wondered if a moose was in the house and went to investigate. She found me dead in my chair and said this is not good. Since she was a hospital nurse for thirty years she knew what dead was and called 911. She told the 911 operator the door was open and send the ambulance ASAP.

The Operator asked if she knew how to do CPR which she said yes, “What’s that song? Oh yeah, staying alive, staying alive…and started CPR.

It was the first day of Covid so the firemen did not know how to put on the Covid monkey suits and took extra long which what should have been a couple minutes turned into nearly 20 and it was all she could do to keep going for that length. In the OR she says they go for a minute or so and trade off. They nearly had two people dead when they finally showed up.

They threw me in the front room and hit me with the paddles; nothing happened. They hit me with the shot to the arm, nothing happened. After they went for another twenty minutes they finally got a heartbeat and took me to Meridian Park Emergency.

Since Covid just started she could not go into the hospital to lobby with the doctors since she spoke the language and had to wait in the parking lot with her sister. She called my son who was at Penn State working on his doctorate and told him he better fly out and bring a suit since it did not look good. He left immediately.

After a couple hours they called her and said go home since I had stabilized and was put in a coma.

Around 8:30 that night they called her and told her she better come down and do not worry about the Covid rules since she would just be saying her goodbyes and when to turn off the machines. The told her they had done everything they could and my heat had stopped again.

Twenty minutes later my heart started and two days later I was laughing and joking with the doctors and nurses. I told her when I woke up from the coma I began singing Christmas Carols since singing songs is an extremely combination if you had brain damage so I sang Christmas songs for three hours in the middle of the night on Memorial Day weekend.

To be continued.