Patient Brought Back To Life Describes Surreal Moments They Witnessed While Clinically Dead

Very few people are able to talk about what it feels like to be dead, which makes one Reddit user’s account especially striking. They described what happened after they briefly died and were later revived, giving others a rare look into the experience.

In their post, the user, who works in healthcare, shared that they were kept on life support for an extended period. The medical emergency left them clinically dead for a couple of minutes before they were placed on a ventilator for several days while doctors worked to stabilize them.

Because they have been both a patient and a healthcare worker, they explained that the entire event changed how they see the world and made them more aware of how fragile life can feel in those moments.

The Reddit user invited others to ask questions about what they went through, and many people wanted to know what the near-death part actually felt like from the inside.

The healthcare worker replied with a detailed description, saying: "The experience was humbling. I felt absolutely no pain. I was comfortable even though my body was fighting hard against everything physically. I remember vomiting a few times while on the ventilator and aspirating... but, it didn't hurt."

The patient was put on a ventilator after being revived Getty Stock Photo

They remembered being surrounded by family in the ICU, which brought some comfort, even though they were unable to respond physically. They still heard voices and felt the presence of the people who were standing around their bed.

"It was a bit like an out-of-body experience... I can still recall conversations my family had in the ICU room but no matter how much I wanted to reply to them or even interact with them, I couldn't. That was the weird part for me," they said.

But things took an unexpected turn when they noticed someone else in the room—someone who could not possibly have been there in real life.

They explained the moment in more detail, sharing: "Upon extubation (removing ventilator from lungs), I remember seeing my grandmother who passed away in 2004. She told me to 'turn around... my time here is just beginning'. Then... I felt the tubes slide out of my lungs and the nurses yelling my name."

The patient saw their grandmother, who had passed away Getty Stock Photo

In another comment, the user said they felt lucky to see their grandmother’s face during the experience, even though she passed away years earlier. They added: "She basically told me that my time here on earth wasn't finished."

"I like to refer to her as my genuine guardian angel," they continued. "I do not really know if she came to me or not... or whether it was the medications. However, it was comforting and opened my eyes to the real possibility of seeing my loved ones who have passed on again."

Other Reddit users reacted strongly to the story, calling the whole account “wild.” One commenter wrote: "I love reading about stuff like this. Sure, the brain is powerful and it's entirely possible that was a hallucination of some kind. But it's also possible it wasn't."

Several people then shared their own stories or experiences from working around seriously ill patients. One Redditor who had worked in a brain trauma unit said staff members often talked to patients in vegetative states because it is impossible to know with full certainty what a patient might still be able to hear or sense.