The near-death experience of Barbara Bartolome
What Researchers Found
The Story
Barbara was a married mother of two young children in 1987. She injured her back lifting a heavy object and underwent a myelogram before back surgery. The x-ray table tipped incorrectly, sending dye into her brain, which caused her to lose consciousness and suffer cardiac arrest. She rose to the ceiling and looked down at her body. She felt calm and enveloped in love. A huge, loving presence stood beside her, creating a sense of eternal connection. She pleaded to return for her children and to complete her life purpose. She watched the medical team call code blue and start resuscitation. She saw her heart monitor flatline and the surgeon thump her chest twice. After the second thump, she returned to her body and described the events accurately to the staff. After the NDE, she gained courage to leave her abusive marriage three years later, leading to a happier life. She discovered a childhood NDE and embraced her strong intuition. Her fear of death decreased, and she viewed consciousness as surviving the body. She started a successful business guided by inner voices and shares her story to help others.
“really want to go back into my life to be able to do that to do what I had”
This NDE features extreme medical crisis with cardiac arrest and flatline, observed from an out-of-body vantage impossible for the unconscious patient on the table. Highly specific details of resuscitation procedures, equipment, actions, and conversations were reported immediately to the medical staff, eliciting shock from the neurosurgeon who stormed out and engagement from the orthopedic surgeon, with later confirmation of precordial thump by a nurse. The primary limiting factor is the same-room perception without physical separation or remote elements.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.
Are you here because someone you love has died?
These accounts were gathered because death may not be the end. Thousands of people have experienced something beyond — and come back to tell us about it.
What Researchers Found
This NDE features extreme medical crisis with cardiac arrest and flatline, observed from an out-of-body vantage impossible for the unconscious patient on the table. Highly specific details of resuscitation procedures, equipment, actions, and conversations were reported immediately to the medical staff, eliciting shock from the neurosurgeon who stormed out and engagement from the orthopedic surgeon, with later confirmation of precordial thump by a nurse. The primary limiting factor is the same-room perception without physical separation or remote elements.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.