Scientists from the University of Southampton examined over four years 2,000 patients who experienced cardiac arrest, from 15 hospitals in the UK, Austria and the United States, and found that nearly 40 percent of those who survived the incident, described being conscious during clinical death, before their hearts resumed beating.
One patient, a 57-year-old British resident, also described an experience which has been heard from others who experienced clinical death. He stated that “he completely left his body”, and was able to observe from the corner of the room how they were trying a CPR procedure to revive him. He described the actions of the medical staff, and even the sounds made by the medical devices.
The study found that out of 2,060 cases of cardiac arrest, 330 survived and of these, 140 reported being aware or conscious during their resuscitation. One in five felt a sense of peace, and one in three felt slowed or accelerated time. Some saw a white light, and 13 percent reported that they felt themselves separating from their body.
“We know that the brain can not function when the heart stops beating,” said Dr. Sam Parnia, a leader of the study, to the London Telegraph. “But in this case, the conscious awareness continued for three minutes despite the heart not pumping, and even after the brain had stopped working 20 to 30 seconds after the cardiac arrest.”
“The man described everything in the room, and more importantly – he heard the machine making two blips every three minutes,” added Dr. Parnia. “Therefore, we could measure the length of the incident that he experienced. He seemed very reliable and everything that he said happened to him — did in fact happen. “
