An eight-year old's experience during her coma

Jenny stood at the doorway of death when she was eight years old. “I had a mysterious intestinal virus. My symptoms included high fever and vomiting. My symptoms were persistent and severe enough that I became dehydrated and required hospitalization. I entered the hospital and for the next several days was intravenously fed. When my parents stepped out to eat, a nurse brought me a tray of Mexican food, which is my favorite. I ate the entire meal! My body went into shock, which resulted in a coma state for 48 hours. While in coma, I experienced numerous near-death states.

“In one, I hovered over my body and saw people coming to visit me. I watched my next-door neighbor and her mother bring me a strawberry Shortcake tin can of hard candies. When she placed one in my mouth, the flavor sent me back into my body.

Another time, I left my body and went down the hall to visit more friends. My boyfriend was visiting his mother and young sister. His entire family was chatting with each other as I hovered over their heads. I left because I realized someone had come to visit me in my room. As I was in the hallway on the pediatric unit, I saw my best friend from school and her sister. They were excited because they had costumes to surprise me with a skit they created. I was hovering above them as they put on their costumes. They had trench coats with Groucho Marx glasses and mustaches. When they entered my room and saw my body in a coma state, they responded with a gasp. As I experienced their shift from excitement to fear, I went back into my body.

“I decided I was tired of the hospital. I thought to myself, ‘I’m leaving.’ I began to float up and see the hospital from above. In the darkness I experienced a set of doors made of energy. They felt like hospital doors with a gate keeper who was loving and accepting. It seemed like the side of the door I was on was dark, and the other side was light. I wanted to enter, but the gate keeper said, ‘It’s not your time. You need to go back to your body.’ I attempted to bargain my way into the light. Another entity, who felt like God, authoritatively told me, ‘YOU MUST GO BACK.’ God’s message: ‘You have a message to bring to earth. It is a message of the existence of a higher power that loves all his children.’ I asked, ‘what am I supposed to do?’ God said, ‘You do not have to know now. It will come to you in dreams and insight.’ Suddenly I was back in my body. I was told that my parents stayed with me during this time. They were with my body while my soul was with God.

“Over the years I have gone through different stages of denying these experiences and accepting them as well. It is difficult to put into words what happened to me. The paranormal abilities that come with it can be perplexing and confusing. One might say this is a gift with a double edge.”

 

P. M. H. Atwater, Near-Death Experiences: The Rest of the Story (Hampton Roads, 2011).