A woman who was pronounced as clinically dead for 24 minutes has recounted her experience, describing it as surprisingly 'peaceful'.
Death is one of the few certainties every one of us will experience, but it’s an inevitability that we try not to dwell on.
‘Thanatophobia’ is classed as a phobia of death, something that over 20 percent of us consider ourselves to have due to the ‘fear of the unknown’.
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According to Google, the most researched question around death is whether it hurts, but the bigger question (that can send us spiralling if we sit with it for too long..) is what happens after death, if anything...
Well, Lauren Canaday, from Virginia, has set her sights on answering those very questions after she experienced death first hand.
Eight months ago, the 39-year-old went into sudden cardiac arrest at her home after suffering from seizures which she was eventually put on medication for.
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She suffered a ‘grand mal seizure’ that causes severe muscle contractions and loss of consciousness, which caused her to then stop breathing.
Her quick-thinking husband snapped into action by calling 911 and performing CPR for four minutes, before EMTs arrived on the scene. It then took a further four defibrillator shocks to restore Lauren’s heartbeat.
Lauren was declared clinically dead for a staggering 24 minutes.
However, just a mere nine days later, Lauren was released from the ICU and allowed to return home, but she had a new mission in mind to share with the world what it was really like to be ‘clinically dead’, which she does with positivity.
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While she doesn’t remember specific visions, she describes the encounter as a ‘peaceful’ one.
"I have this gut feeling that it was friendly and peaceful, even though I can't report any shapes or personas or visions of that time," Canaday recounted in an interview with Newsweek.
"I feel like I dissolved, and it was just really nice. What I have is a strong sensation of peace about that time when I was out of consciousness."
She explained that not only did it change her perspective on death, but also impacted the way she lives.
‘"I remember a lot of very serene moments in and after the hospital, like none of the worries I used to have mattered, and I got insanely excited about things like cheeseburgers," Lauren said.
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"Things just felt very simple," she added, saying she now takes joy from the little things.
CPR administered meant that when trying to restart her heart, Lauren received constant oxygen to stop her brain from being starved.
Without oxygen, brain cells start to die within a minute and within ten minutes, so many brain cells will have died that it's unlikely the patient will recover.
After making a full recovery, she’s dedicated her life to sharing her experience by releasing her memoir, Independence Ave: How Individualism Killed Me and Community Brought Me Back, to make people not fear death and to also make them aware that there’s ‘something serene beyond here.’