NDEs: cardiac arrest
56 cases
Near-death experiences, told by the people who lived through them. Each one checked against the same five questions.
Cardiac arrest 21
United States, 1978
Mr. M.
He was resuscitated in the ER. He said he saw them put a needle into his groin. The medical record confirms that blood was taken from his groin, but on the opposite side from the one he named.
AWARE study, 2014
The blue-cap patient
He was resuscitated after a cardiac arrest in a hospital taking part in a study. He said he saw himself from the ceiling during the resuscitation, heard the defibrillator’s voice, and saw a man in a blue cap. His medical records confirm part of what he said.
California, 1997
Lucky Pettersen
At 4, Lucky came out of a coma and said his friend Big Gino had walked him back from heaven. Two weeks later, his family learned that Big Gino had died.
United States, 1973
Mr. S.
He was resuscitated in the early hours in a coronary care unit. He described how the two needles moved on the defibrillator, the machine that delivers the shocks. The medical record does not say which machine it was.
Colombia, 2020
Israel Vargas
He was intubated with COVID and says he saw hell and a white valley. He says that on some screens he saw Joe Biden and América de Cali win before it happened.
Barcelona, Spain, 2022
Juan Carlos Madrid
His heart stopped in the ICU. Ten days later he wrote the number 45 on a whiteboard. It was the number of minutes his resuscitation lasted, and he says no one had told him.
Bogotá, 2021
Andrés Arévalo
Andrés Arévalo says that while he was in a COVID coma he dreamed Trump would be president again. Trump returned in 2025. There is nothing to show that Andrés told anyone about his dream before it happened.
Bogotá, 1995
Gloria Polo
A dentist was struck by lightning in Bogotá, and her heart stopped. She says she hugged her daughter, who was somewhere else, and then saw her whole life.
Montreal, 2008
Patient J.S.
In 2008, a pregnant woman had surgery on her aorta in Montreal with her circulation stopped. She said that, with her eyes taped shut, she saw a nurse and some machines. According to the researchers, the surgeon confirmed it.
Utah, 2003
Vincent Tolman
In 2003, Vincent Tolman collapsed in a Utah restaurant. He says he was put in a body bag and that a rookie EMT resuscitated him in the ambulance.
Madrid, 2017
Andrés Sampedro
Andrés Sampedro collapsed while dancing salsa. He says he watched from the ceiling as a nurse he didn’t know gave him CPR. He says that when he woke up he could describe her. The earliest description on record is from an interview six months later.
United States, 1976
Mr. O.
He was resuscitated in the hospital corridor. He said he saw his wife and two of his children at the far end. They had come unannounced, and a nurse stopped them a long way off.
Madrid, Spain, 2025
Eduardo Muñoz
Eduardo Muñoz’s heart stopped three times. Afterward, his mother filmed him in the ICU describing his experience: a tribunal and his late grandfather. Eduardo says he also saw, from above, the ambulance that was carrying him, with the police. That part is not in the video.
Mexico, 1998
David Rojas
David Rojas says he saw the doctors operating on him from above and recognized the surgeon. According to David, the surgeon told him there were two doctors, not the three David describes.
Hartford, 1985
The red shoe patient
In 1985, a woman resuscitated in a Hartford hospital said she saw a red shoe from above the roof. According to the nurse, a skeptical doctor went up and found it.
Seattle, United States, 1977
Maria
Her heart stopped, and afterward she said she had seen a tennis shoe on the outside ledge of a third-floor window. Kimberly Clark, the social worker who was caring for her, says she went upstairs to look for it and found it.
San Diego, 2004 or 2005
Randy Kay
Randy Kay, a medical-company executive in San Diego, was hospitalized with blood clots in his lungs and caught a very serious infection in the hospital. He said his heart stopped, that he met Jesus, and that when he came back he heard beside him the same song he had heard with Jesus.
Texas, 1943
George Ritchie
In 1943, George Ritchie, a 20-year-old soldier, was pronounced dead in an army hospital in Texas. He said he flew to a city by a river and saw a cafe that he recognized months later in Vicksburg.
The Netherlands, 1979
The man with the dentures
A man arrived ice-cold and with no pulse at a hospital. A nurse took out his dentures to resuscitate him. According to the nurse, more than a week later the man told him where he had left them.
Seattle, 2006
Dean Braxton
Dean Braxton’s heart stopped in 2006, and doctors worked to resuscitate him for more than an hour. He said he stood before Jesus, who told him three times to go back.
California, United States, 1987
John Davis
He says that in 1987 his heart stopped for seven minutes. He says a guide showed him the afterlife, with a library of soulmates and a planetarium with millions of worlds. At the end he heard: “There is no death.”
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