A real-life story · United States, 1976

The near-death experience of Mr. O.

In 1976, a retired laborer was in hospital and was due to go home the next day. That night his heart stopped, and he was resuscitated. He later said that he rose above his body. As he rose, he saw his wife, his eldest son and his eldest daughter at the end of the corridor. They had come to see him as a surprise.

No. 24 in the ranking

The cardiologist Michael Sabom calls him Mr. O. to keep his name private. His wife told Sabom that they had not planned to visit that night. She also told him that a nurse stopped them about ten rooms away. Mr. O.’s face was turned the other way. We tell it step by step and then look at what could be checked. If you only want the evidence, skip straight to what can be checked.

Step 1

July 1976 · On a hospital ward · His wife’s account

A retired laborer is waiting to go home after a heart attack

Mr. O. was 60 and a retired laborer. In July 1976 he was in hospital with heart trouble. He was already better and was in a small double room on a regular ward. The next day he was due to be discharged.

His wife was not planning to visit him that night. He was coming home the next day.

His case was studied by the cardiologist Michael Sabom. On the page about his book, we explain how Sabom worked and what the limits of his study are.

Step 2

That night · At home · His wife’s account

His eldest son and daughter drop by unannounced and decide to surprise him

That night, his eldest son and eldest daughter came by to see her without warning. Since they had nothing better to do, the three of them decided to go to the hospital and surprise Mr. O.

They did not phone ahead. No one at the hospital knew they were coming.

Mr. O. had six children, and different people visited him each time.

Step 3

That night · His heart stops · Mr. O.’s account

He has another heart attack, and his heart stops

That night he had another heart attack, a very bad one. Later he was told that he went into spasms.

They wheeled him in his bed out of his room into the corridor. There, several doctors and nurses began resuscitating him.

The part of the medical record for that night was never found.

Step 4

During the resuscitation · Mr. O.’s account

He says he rises slowly and watches them resuscitate him

As he was going, he looked back and saw his body lying there. At first he did not know who it was. He looked closely and saw it was him. He felt no regret.

He was rising slowly, as if floating up a dark corridor. Below, the doctors were working hard. They climbed on top of him with their knees, pounded his chest and plunged a needle almost into the center of his chest.

He could see everything very clearly. He could not hear anything, not a sound.

And then he looked toward the end of the corridor.

Step 5

During the resuscitation · Mr. O.’s account

He says he sees his wife, his son and his daughter at the end of the corridor

At the end of the corridor he saw his wife, his eldest son and his eldest daughter, standing with the doctor. He did not understand why they were crying. This is how he told it to Sabom:

“I remember seeing them down the hall just as plain as could be. … There was no way, being out, that I could have seen anybody. … I knew damn well they were there.”
Mr. O., in his interview with Michael Sabom, published in Recollections of Death (1982)

Then he kept rising, and he says he came to a different world.

His wife lived that night from the corridor, and she tells it differently.

Step 6

That night · In the corridor · His wife’s account

A nurse stops them about ten rooms away, and his wife only sees his gray hair

They arrived at the hospital and began walking down the corridor toward his room. They saw a lot of commotion near his door. A nurse stopped them “at least ten rooms down.”

His wife recognized his gray hair and knew something was wrong. He had been wheeled in his bed out of his room and they were resuscitating him. His face was turned the other way. She could only see the top of his head.

Then they took him straight up to intensive care, on another floor, without passing by them.

It took Mr. O. three days to be able to talk.

Step 7

The next morning and three days later · His wife’s account

Three days later, he tells his wife he saw them in the corridor

The next morning they were allowed to see him. He was disoriented. He could not talk because he had tubes in his mouth and nose.

Three days later he was better and told his wife what had happened. This is how she remembers it:

“He swore he’d seen us, and I said he couldn’t have. … And he told me who was there. … He said he seen us standing there talking to the doctor. And we were.”
Mr. O.’s wife, in her interview with Michael Sabom (1982)

His wife says he could not have known who had come that night. They had six children, and different people went to see him each time. She also says he always tells it the same way.

No one knows what he was told during the visit the next morning.

Step 8

August 1977 · A year later · Michael Sabom’s account

A year later, Sabom talks with him, his wife and his daughter

In August 1977, Sabom interviewed Mr. O. Mr. O. was not one of the patients Sabom asked without knowing anything about them. His case reached Sabom because Mr. O. was already telling people about his experience.

Afterwards, Sabom interviewed his wife separately. She told him what happened in the corridor. Sabom also spoke with the daughter who was there that night. The daughter remembered arriving at the hospital with her mother and brother right at the time of the arrest. She remembered it because it was unexpected, the night before his discharge. She did not remember the details, because her father was in hospital several times that year.

Sabom looked for the medical record from that night.

Step 9

After the interviews · Michael Sabom’s account

The part of the medical record for that night cannot be found

Sabom could not find the part of the medical record describing the arrest. It is not known what time it happened or what was done to him.

Mr. O. described how they resuscitated him, with the chest compressions and the needle in his chest. None of this could be compared with any document.

The only thing that confirms his account is what his family remembers.

Step 10

1982 · Michael Sabom’s account

For Sabom, what matters is not what the doctors did, but who was in the corridor

Sabom published the case in 1982. Sabom writes that the most interesting part is that Mr. O. says he saw his family at the end of the corridor. Mr. O. also admits that he could not have seen anyone while he was unconscious.

This case is different from the other five cases Sabom was able to compare in detail. In this case, what is confirmed is not something done in a resuscitation. What is confirmed is who arrived that night unannounced.

What can be checked today about the family Mr. O. says he saw in the corridor?

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. Here we ask them about the family Mr. O. says he saw at the end of the corridor: his wife, his eldest son and his eldest daughter, who came unannounced.

2.5 of 5

Yes
Unconfirmed
No data

Could anyone have told Mr. O. that his family had come that night before he described it?It cannot be fully confirmed that no one told Mr. O. that his family had come that night. His wife says Mr. O. told her what he had seen three days later, as soon as he could talk. She answered that he could not have seen them. But the family had already visited him the next morning, and no one knows what they told him. There is no sign that anyone told him. That does not mean they did not.
Is it known what time Mr. O.’s heart stopped?Only the day is known, from what his wife remembers. It was a night in July 1976, the night before his discharge. Michael Sabom, the cardiologist who studied him, did not find the part of the medical record for that night. No time was written down.
Is it known when Mr. O.’s family arrived in the corridor?It is known only from what his wife and daughter remember. His wife says they arrived while he was being resuscitated in the corridor, and his daughter remembers they arrived at the time of the arrest. There is no document with the time.
Does anyone confirm that Mr. O.’s family was at the end of the corridor?His family confirms it, but no one else. His wife told Michael Sabom, the cardiologist, that they came unannounced with their eldest son and daughter and that a nurse stopped them about ten rooms away. The daughter remembers arriving, but not the details. No one outside the family has confirmed it. Neither the nurse nor the doctor has confirmed it.
Could Mr. O. have seen his family in the corridor in a normal way?According to his wife, it is very unlikely that Mr. O. saw his family. They were about ten rooms away, and his face was turned the other way. She could only see the top of his head. No one outside the family has confirmed it. To know for sure, we would need the medical record for that night and what the nurse who stopped them remembers.

Why we ask each question

When did each thing happen?

There is no document with times. The part of the medical record for that night was not found. Everything known about the timing comes from what his wife remembers. It cannot be placed on a timeline with hours, as in other stories.

What is hard to explain

Mr. O. says he saw a visit that arrived unannounced that night. That does not happen in every resuscitation.
His wife says a nurse stopped them about ten rooms away and that his face was turned the other way.
According to his wife, he got right who had come. They had six children, and different ones visited him each time.
His wife and daughter confirm it separately, in interviews with Michael Sabom.

What remains unresolved

Everything comes from what his family remembers, a year later. No one outside the family confirms it.
The family visited him the next morning, and he did not talk until three days later. Someone may have told him they had come. There is no sign that this happened, but it cannot be ruled out either.
The part of the medical record for the arrest was not found. So there is no time and no details of the resuscitation.
The daughter remembers arriving that day, but not the details.

Where this story comes from

Books

Michael Sabom, Recollections of Death (Harper & Row, 1982), chapter 7 (case 6)Buy the book

Case documents

Sabom’s interviews with Mr. O., his wife and his daughter, in his book (1982)

Studies

Michael Sabom’s study: 116 people and 25 who imagined a resuscitationRead

To understand more

Mr. M.: the needle in his groin, another of Sabom’s casesRead
Mr. S.: the needles on the shock machine, another of Sabom’s casesRead
Nancy: a woman who said she saw two men at the end of the hallwayRead

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