Unconscious burn patient recalls everything

In the Netherlands, where I was working as a plumber, I fell ten meters (thirty feet) from a rooftop. On the street below, I struck a cauldron of tar. A wave of hot tar spilled out over me. Lying there on the street, I was conscious and felt no pain but very warm. 

I cannot remember the ride to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctors started working on me right away. Because they thought I was in tremendous pain, they gave me a shot of morphine. I remember quite well that they called the hospital in Beverwijk, specialized in burn treatment, asking for advice. Doctor Hermans sent an assistant with a quantity of wrappings and Flamazine (ointment used to treat burns, ed.)

Lying at the first-aid station, I had the first out-of-body experience. I saw myself lying on the table and heard the nervous yelling of the doctors and assistants. What I said earlier about the morphine, because they thought I was in tremendous pain - I wasn't, because I was not in my body.

They were wrapping up me in a sort of net, like a sausage, when Doctor Hermans' assistant entered. He got very upset and told the others to unwrap me. They were also trying to take off my Tee-shirt, but because it was stuck to my skin with the tar, they also tore my skin. After I was treated as best as possible, they brought me into intensive care. They brought me in a glass-encased sterile room and put me to bed.

The first week after the accident, they injected me literally full of morphine, to keep me in a sort of coma. Afterwards a doctor and my parents told me that I had not been conscious for one moment during that week. The funny part is that I can remember everything that happened at the intensive care. I know my parents came to visit, that my father had to throw up when he saw me, that my mother did not know what to do and could not stop crying. 

Also a nurse came to sit by me whenever she could manage the time. I knew she was taking courses in surgery assistance. I saw her and her colleagues working the whole week, with me and other intensive care patients. One given moment, I knew precisely what patient was given which medication and what time.

When I still had not died after one week, I was given penicillin. Because of the lack of morphine, I suffered withdrawal symptoms. I slowly regained consciousness and that is when the pain also started.

When I told the nurse, what she was studying for and how far she had progressed, she was incredulous. Afterwards I never saw her again; she avoided me as if I were some sort of pariah. Another nurse I told of the medication patients were getting and she also reacted very strangely. After this, I did not mention it again.

Five weeks later, I was released from hospital. I spent three months at home to heal from the burns and the concussion. I did not have any more out-of-body experiences afterwards.

NDERF.org #2819