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A real-life story · AWARE study, United Kingdom, United States, and Austria, 2014

The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient

A 57-year-old man went into cardiac arrest in a hospital that was taking part in a study of near-death experiences. He later said he heard a voice saying “shock the patient” and saw himself from the ceiling. He also said he saw a bald man in a blue cap, and that he recognized him the next day.

No. 3 in the ranking

It is the most cited case from the AWARE study. AWARE is one of the largest hospital studies of what people remember from a cardiac arrest. The researchers went through this man’s medical records and were able to check part of what he described. What could be checked in his account, and what couldn’t?

Step 1

2008 to 2012 · According to the study

A study to test what people see from the ceiling

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “A study to test what people see from the ceiling”

Many people who survive a cardiac arrest say they saw themselves from above. A team led by the physician Sam Parnia set out to check this in real hospitals.

15 hospitals in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Austria followed every cardiac arrest they could between 2008 and 2012. Each hospital put up between 50 and 100 high shelves in its wards. On top of each shelf was an image that could only be seen from the ceiling.

If someone said they had seen themselves from above in a room with a shelf, the researchers could ask what the image showed.

None of the patients’ names were published. In the paper, this man appears as “a 57 year old man.”

Step 2

Before the cardiac arrest · Awake · His account

Pressure in his groin

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “Pressure in his groin”

He is on a hospital ward that isn’t intensive care. He is talking to the nurse.

He feels very strong pressure in his groin. It doesn’t hurt. It’s as if someone were pushing down hard on him.

He says he keeps answering the nurse. Then, all of a sudden, he stops.

His heart goes into ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation is when the heart beats so chaotically that it stops pumping. This is a cardiac arrest.

Step 3

During the cardiac arrest · His account

He says he hears an automated voice

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “He says he hears an automated voice”

The next thing he remembers clearly is an automated voice.

“Shock the patient, shock the patient.”

That is what an automated defibrillator says. It is the device that gives the heart electric shocks to get it beating in a regular rhythm again. He didn’t see the device. He heard it.

Step 4

During the cardiac arrest · His account

He says a woman beckons him from the ceiling

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “He says a woman beckons him from the ceiling”

At that moment he sees a woman up in a corner of the room, by the ceiling. She is beckoning him to come up.

“I can’t get up there,” he thinks. She beckons him again.

“I felt that she knew me, I felt that I could trust her.”

He feels she is there for a reason, but he doesn’t know what it is.

Step 5

During the cardiac arrest · His account

He says he sees himself from above, with a man in a blue cap

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “He says he sees himself from above, with a man in a blue cap”

“And the next second, I was up there,” he says. From there he looks down at himself.

Below him he sees the nurse and another man. He can’t see the man’s face, only his back. “He was quite a chunky fella.”

The man is wearing blue scrubs and a blue cap. He can tell the man has no hair from the way the cap sits.

Step 6

Waking up · His account

He wakes up not knowing whether it was real

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “He wakes up not knowing whether it was real”

The next thing he remembers is waking up in bed. The nurse says to him: “Oh you nodded off… you are back with us now.”

He isn’t sure himself: “Whether she said those words, whether that automated voice really happened, I don’t know.”

What he does remember is feeling euphoric.

Step 7

The next day · His account

He recognizes the man in the blue cap

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “He recognizes the man in the blue cap”

He didn’t know the man’s name. He says the man came to see him the next day.

“I saw this man [come to visit me] and I knew who I had seen the day before.”

He says this in the study interview. The date of that interview was never published.

Step 8

Afterward · According to the study

The researchers review his medical records

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “The researchers review his medical records”

This man was one of two patients in the study who said they had seen or heard something real from their resuscitation. The other patient couldn’t complete the full interview because of poor health.

The researchers compared what he described with his medical records.

According to the paper, the records confirmed three things. They confirmed that an automated defibrillator was used. They confirmed which medical team was at the cardiac arrest. And they confirmed what role the man he recognized played in it.

The records don’t confirm the man’s appearance, the blue cap, or what the nurse said. And the paper doesn’t give the time of any shock.

Step 9

Afterward · According to the study

How long had he been without a heartbeat?

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “How long had he been without a heartbeat?”

The researchers work it out from the way the defibrillator operates. After the first shock, the device requires at least two minutes of CPR. Only then does it analyze the heart again and give a second shock.

According to the researchers, if he heard two separate shocks, he was conscious up to about three minutes into the cardiac arrest.

It is an estimate, not a measured time. The paper doesn’t say whether he heard two shocks or the same command repeated.

Step 10

Afterward · According to the study

There was no shelf on his ward

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “There was no shelf on his ward”

The hospitals put up about a thousand shelves. But only 22 of every 100 cardiac arrests happened in rooms with a shelf.

His happened in a room without one. There was no image to ask him about.

The same was true of the other patient. So the image test was never carried out with either of them.

Step 11

October 2014 · According to the press

The case makes headlines around the world

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “The case makes headlines around the world”

The study is published in October 2014 in the medical journal Resuscitation. The case appears in newspapers around the world.

Parnia explains why this case matters. These experiences are often assumed to be hallucinations that happen before the heart stops or after it starts beating again. People don’t usually think of them as experiences of “real” events while the heart is stopped.

The press adds details that aren’t in the paper. It says the man was a social worker. And it says he heard two “bleeps” from a machine “at three minute intervals.” The paper speaks of a voice and of at least two minutes.

Step 12

2023 · According to the study

Another blue cap, nine years later

Illustration from The near-death experience of the blue-cap patient: “Another blue cap, nine years later”

In 2023, the second part of the study, AWARE II, is published. This time, the researchers place a tablet over the patient during resuscitation. The tablet shows a randomly chosen image. They also put headphones on the patient that repeat the names of three fruits.

The team interviews 28 survivors. None of them remembers the image or the fruits. Then they are asked to name any three fruits. One says apple, pear, and banana. Those are the fruits on the recording. But they are among the most common fruits. No one calculated how much chance could have played a part.

One survivor says he saw the doctors getting organized. He saw a doctor in a “surgical hat and blue scrubs.” And he felt someone rubbing his chest. None of that could be checked.

The paper doesn’t say whether this patient saw himself from outside his body. The authors classify his case as regaining consciousness during CPR. And the blue cap turns up in both studies, because it is what a lot of people wear in a hospital.

Another survivor remembers them putting two electrodes on his chest, and he remembers the shock. His medical records do confirm that part.

What does the evidence say?

What can be checked

We ask every story the same five questions. They don’t tell us whether someone is telling the truth. They tell us what can be shown today.

4 of 5
  • Yes
  • Unconfirmed
  • No data
  1. Did anyone tell the blue-cap patient anything about his resuscitation before he described it?There is no sign that anyone told him anything about the resuscitation, but we can’t be sure. We only know what he said from the interview the researchers did with him, and its date was not published. Nor do we know what he had been told before.
  2. Is it known when the blue-cap patient’s heart stopped?Yes, it is known. The cardiac arrest is in his medical record, and the researchers reviewed it. The exact time was not published.
  3. Is it known when they used the defibrillator and when the man in the blue cap was there?Yes, it is known. His medical record says both things happened during the resuscitation.
  4. Does the medical record confirm what the blue-cap patient described?Yes, according to the researchers, his medical record confirms the main points. It confirms that they used the defibrillator, who was there during the resuscitation, and what the man he recognized did. It doesn’t confirm other things he described, such as what that man looked like, the blue cap, or the words he heard.
  5. Could the blue-cap patient have known about the defibrillator and the man in the cap by hearing or seeing something in an ordinary way?It can’t be ruled out that the patient knew those things in an ordinary way. He may have heard the defibrillator’s voice, because hearing can keep working during a resuscitation. And he saw the man in person the next day, so his memory may have blended with that meeting. There is no sign that either of those things happened.

Why we ask each question

What the press said and what the paper says

Almost everything that circulates about this case comes from the press coverage of October 2014. Some details don’t match the scientific paper:

  • What he heard. The press speaks of two “bleeps” from a machine “at three minute intervals.” In the paper, he describes an automated voice saying “shock the patient” twice.
  • The time. The press says he was “clinically dead for three minutes.” The paper estimates he was conscious for “up to 3 min.” It bases this on the minimum of two minutes the device requires between one shock and the next.
  • The place. At least one newspaper puts the scene in an operating room. According to the paper, it was on a ward that wasn’t intensive care.
  • Who he was. Only the press says he was a social worker. The paper says “a 57 year old man.”

What is hard to explain

  • It happened as part of a study, and the medical records confirm the main points without relying on his account.
  • According to the researchers, if he heard the second shock, he had been in cardiac arrest for at least about two minutes. By that point, the brain usually shows very little activity.
  • He himself doubted that the voice was real. But his medical records confirm that an automated defibrillator was used, the device that says those words.

What remains unresolved

  • The most precise thing he described was something he heard. And during a resuscitation, hearing is the most likely way to pick up what is going on.
  • He recognized the man after seeing him in person.
  • The minutes of cardiac arrest are the researchers’ estimate, not a measured time. It is unknown whether he heard two shocks or the same command twice.
  • Blue scrubs and blue caps are common in a hospital.

Out of 2,060 cardiac arrests, one case

The blue-cap patient is the only one in his study with an account that could be compared with his medical records. Almost everyone else dropped out along the way.

Picture 100 cardiac arrests from the study:

Each dot is a cardiac arrest. The 22 filled-in dots are the cardiac arrests that happened in a room with a shelf. Only in those rooms could what someone saw from the ceiling have been put to the test.

And out of all the cardiac arrests, this is what was left:

From all the cardiac arrests in the AWARE study (2008–2012) to one checked case
StepPeople
Cardiac arrests studied2,060
Survived to hospital discharge330
Able to do the first interview140
Completed the in-depth interview101
Described a near-death experience9
Described seeing or hearing real events from their resuscitation2
Could be compared with medical records1

What these figures don’t tell you

  • If no one remembers it, that doesn’t mean no one experienced anything. The authors themselves think more people may have had mental activity. But they may have forgotten it because of brain injury or sedatives.
  • The image test never took place. The two people who described something had their cardiac arrests in rooms without a shelf.
  • This case can’t tell us whether the patient saw from outside his body. His room had no shelf and no image to check it. That is why AWARE II was carried out. And in AWARE II, no one remembered the image either.

For more figures on how many people have these experiences, see How many people have a near-death experience?

Where this story comes from

Studies

Articles

  • The Local (Austria), “Multi-nation study offers evidence of life after death,” October 10, 2014Read

To learn more

  • The AWARE study, told step by stepRead
  • The AWARE II study, told step by stepRead
  • What does science say about near-death experiences?Read

Our archive

  • Our assessment of the case using the five questions, and its comparison with AWARE II, as of October 10, 2026

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