No tunnels or bright lights: 5 things that people say they saw when receving CPR, being revived from death

People have different theories when it comes to death – everyone sees it come or happen in different ways. Some believe that it happens in a heartbeat when the entire life flashes before the eyes before they shut forever while others believe that it looks like walking towards the end of a tunnel with bright light flashing the at the abyss. But shockingly, an ICU doctor recently shared some secrets about what exactly they saw right before they were revived from death.

According to a report published in The Sun, Dr Sam Parnia, an associate professor at the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Health said that people have for decades reported experiencing heightened consciousness when their heart stopped beating. But in this scenario, when they swung between life and death, there were things that people saw and felt.

A myriad of emotions

Firstly, patients reported reflecting on how their actions may have impacted others – some patients even said that they felt like they were going somewhere similar to home. Some even remembered frightening moments from their lives. And these were neither hallucinations nor delusions or illusions – they were real experiences at the brink of death.

The study’s findings were presented at this year’s American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions and involved an analysis of 567 men and women who had undergone a CPR after their hearts stopped beating. When efforts were made resurrect them, brain monitoring devices were attached to see if there was unconscious learning. These also projected one of the ten stored images on the screen and audio playing words like banana, apple and pear in every five minutes.

Of the participants, only 10 per cent survived and 28 of them were called for the interview – some had specific memories while others were likely to have gone through misinterpretations of medical events. One even reported a sense of being burnt in hell. Only one recalled the fruits named during CPR.

Apart from this, there were five other things that patients saw:

1. Hearing the medical team
2. Evaluation of life
3. Feeling the CPR happen
4. Heading towards a destination
5. A sense of activities taking place in the ICU

Experts said that dying may not be as bad as people think, it is a process like giving birth. Over time, it can leave people more exhausted. Over time, they sleep more and stay awake less.