Medical significance of near-death experiences

During his medical degree, Dr Sam Parnia conducted a study in which the medical condition of 567 men and women were observed in those hospitalized in the United States and the United Kingdom.

In the patients that underwent CPR or emergency resuscitation and survived, an interview was conducted. Out of a total of 28 patients that were interviewed, 11 recalled consciousness during resuscitation. Interviews that were conducted included self-narrated reports of experiences during CPR.

Dr Sam Parnia is an intensive care physician can came across the idea whilst observing doctors revive a patient undergoing cardiac arrest. He wondered is the patients were able to hear the doctors while they attempted to save his life.

An Associate Professor at the Department of Medicine at the NYU Langone Health institute, Dr Sam Parnia conducted the study titled “AWAreness during REsuscitation II: A multi-center study of consciousness and awareness in cardiac arrest”

“For decades now, millions of people who’ve gone through this have reported having lucid heightened consciousness, even though from the perspective of their doctors they were not conscious and they were in death,” he explained

Results:

Out of the 28 persons interviewed, 39% said that they remembered, and could hear the doctors trying to save their life. One also mentioned that he could feel someone rubbing his chest.

However, 6 people recalled out-of-body experiences, which were characterized as dreams. These dreams included being able to see a deceased relative, asking them to return back to their body, or remembering the process of dying.

Some also narrated that they experienced an assessment of their lives. These assessments were based on how their actions impacted others. Some explained that they were returning back “home”.

Certain participants also described horrific experiences, such as those synonymous with “burning in hell”

While these results give a surprising interpretation of the experience between life and death, further investigations are necessary to comprehend a more detailed case study. 

A lot of the survivors also exhibited signs of needing professional mental assistance post their experiences. Dr Sam Parnia said 

“There needs to be a wider recognition of patient cognitive experiences during cardiac arrest among treating physicians and healthcare providers with [the] incorporation of this reality into the compassionate care of our patients”