Niamh Shackleton
A woman who died for 24 minutes has shared what it was like.
Lots of people have shared how they've died and come back to life, often with the help of modern-day technology.
This time 100 years ago, people commonly died of things like influenza, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, while the average age somebody lived to across the globe was early to mid-30s, says Statista.
This has since increased to a global average of 72 years old — something one woman almost didn't make it to after dying for 24 minutes.
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That person is Lauren Canaday, and she took to Reddit a couple of years ago to detail her near-death experience and opened the floor to any questions.
"I went into sudden cardiac arrest at home this past February," Lauren penned. "My husband called 911 and started CPR. 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."
"I also have a normal EEG despite a history of seizures and status epilepticus for over 30 minutes right after resuscitation," she added.
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One inquisitive individual proceeded to ask her if she remembers anything from when she was 'dead' for 24 minutes.
"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," Lauren went on to reply.
"I never regained memory of the week prior or most of the time in ICU and am foggy on about a month prior. I remember only a feeling of extreme peace that I honestly seriously miss!"
Apparently, this peaceful feeling stayed with her for a few weeks upon waking.
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Lauren added that while she was still in the hospital, she kept forgetting why she was there.
Another person asked Lauren if she had to 'grapple with any guilt or confusion about surviving' — and she said that she '100%' did.
She penned: "Yep. 100%. So much guilt/confusion. And grief to deal with all the consequences. Ugh. My emotional state was exceptionally poor for a while. I would not have gotten through it without my husband's support."
Lauren explained that she had to take a break from work after her near-death ordeal and, at the time of writing, was having weekly therapy and going to support groups.
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She added: "It helps to meet people through the newsletter I started. That helps me process things. I email a lot with my subscribers."
You can find Lauren's Substack here.