A woman named Lauren Canaday, who was declared clinically dead for a whole 24 minutes, was resuscitated and lived to talk about her near-death experience.
Canaday, who is an author, detailed her after-life experience in an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit. She also talked about her "resurrection" in her memoir titled "Independence Ave". “I went into sudden cardiac arrest at home this past February — my husband called 911 and started CPR,” Canaday wrote in the post. “It took 24 minutes for EMTs to resuscitate me. After 9 days in the ICU, I was declared ‘cognitively intact’ and have no visible brain damage on MRIs.”
She also added that the results from her electroencephalogram — a test that measures electrical activity in the brain — came back normal despite the fact that she’d experienced an epileptic seizure for more than 30 minutes right after resuscitation, according to New York Post.
The reason behind her cardiac arrest was attributed to Covid-19 by the paramedics. She tested positive before being admitted to the ICU. In clinical terms, the survivor experienced the Lazarus effect or autoresuscitation. This rare phenomenon, whose exact cause remains unknown, occurs when a patient “declared dead from cardiac arrest suddenly shows signs of life.”
As per New York Post, Canaday’s case is particularly fascinating as majority of people don’t live long after their “resurrection”. Out of the 65 documented cases of the Lazarus effect between 1982 and 2018, only 18 people made a full recovery.
“My husband did CPR for 4 minutes and the operator told him what to do, he’d never done it and hadn’t been certified in a long time. Luckily we are close to a fire station and EMTs arrived in 4 minutes to take over and use the paddles!” she wrote while asking responding to questions by curious Redditors.
Several people were also curious to know about what she experienced in her “dead state” and what happened after she was brought back to life. “I was in a coma for 2 days and when I woke up I was very confused about being intubated and didn’t have any short-term memory for several more days. I never regained memory of the week prior or most of the time in ICU and am foggy on about a month prior,” she replied.
“I don’t know when I started to understand what year it was and answer neuro questions accurately but I think it was a few days. I kept forgetting why I was in the hospital, I’m told.”
Canaday, however, didn’t describe her after-life experience as a “deep sleep”. She also didn’t see her life flashing before her eyes. But, she felt extremely peaceful and that feeling stayed with her for a “few weeks upon waking.”
Unfortunately, the aftermath of her alleged rebirth has been far from peaceful, New York Post reported. She said her “emotional state was exceptionally poor for a while” as she was filled with guilt, confusion and grief.
“I was a big pile of emotional human goo. Now I’m a lot more functional but still doing weekly therapy and monthly support groups plus had to take a break from work,” she remarked.
“So, it’s going to be a long road I think. It helps to meet people through the newsletter I started. That helps me process things. I email a lot with my subscribers,” she added.
“Food favorites changed, and I have different priorities which affects friendships/relationships. My love for my husband has truly grown but might be some hero worship in play there,” Canaday said.
“I feel like my first life ended in February and I woke up to my second life. “I feel like there’s a very thin line between life and death and while I’m grateful to have more time with friends/family, I don’t feel worried about death anymore. I’m much more worried about the pain often experienced in life,” Canaday further added.
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