Life After Death

Pam Reynolds learnt she had a life-threatening bulge in an artery in her brain. Neurosurgeon Robert Spetzler told the 35 year old mother of three that in order to operate he would have to stop her heart. During that time her brain function would cease. By all clinical measures, she would be dead for up to an hour.

While Reynolds was under anesthesia, leads from a machine that emitted a clicking sound were plugged into her ears to gauge her brain stem function (the brain stem plays a part in controlling hearing as well as other involuntary activities). Additional instruments tracked heartbeat, breathing, temperature and other vital signs. Her limbs were restrained her eyes were lubricated and then taped shut.

As Spetzler powered the surgical saw to open the patient's skull, something occurred that never registered on any of the sophisticated monitoring devices. Reynolds felt herself "pop" out of her body. From a vantage point just above Spetzler's shoulders, she looked down on the operation. She "saw" Spetzler holding something that resembled an electric toothbrush. A female voice complained that the patient's blood vessel were too small. It appeared to Reynolds that they were about to operate on her groin.

That couldn't be right, she thought. This is brain surgery. Reynolds then assumed that whatever they were doing inside her skull had triggered a hallucination.

But even though her eyes and ears were effectively sealed shut, what she saw perceived was actually happening. The surgical saw did resemble an electric toothbrush. Surgeons were, indeed, working on her groin: Catheters had to be threaded up to her heart to connect to a heart lung machine.

Spetzler gave the order to bring Reynolds to "standstill"- draining the blood from her body. By every reading of every instrument, life left Reynold's body. And she found herself traveling down a tunnel towards a light. At its end, she saw her long-dead grandmother, relatives and friends. Time seemed to stop. Then an uncle led her back to her body and instructed her to return. It felt like plunging into a pool of ice water. After she came to, Reynolds told Spetzler all that she'd seen and experienced.

"You are way out of my area of expertise," Spetzler said. And twelve years later, he still doesn't know what to make of it.

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