how do living people who have "died" deal with it?

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
1

[Obpython reference] It got better! [/Obpythonreference]

So I’m hanging around the house last night, and a person drops by unexpectedly (and terminally late), and, instead of telling them to go to hell, I immediately invite them in and offer to ply them with food and drink, which should tell you that said person was of a sex that is interesting to me 8-).

Anyways, we are settled together on the couch, and she is flipping through the channels, and (after making fun of a few softpornamax late night movies), she hits upon “Trainspotting”, which, despite its wonderful reviews, neither of us has actually seen.

So, we watch it.

I’m enjoying the movie, even though it is so late at night that my internal organs, in and of their own volition, keep trying to migrate to bed. Then, near the end, it gets to the scene wherein the protagonist has a bad reaction/overdose. The visual is from his perspective and as if he suddenly went down an elevator shaft while the sides of said shaft move inwards to obliterate the outside world. Suddenly, I run and retrieve my spleen (which went to bed an hour ago), and start babbling. “That is EXACTLY what it is like!” Etc. etc.

The point being (if there is one), that I had an unfortunate incident during what was rumored to be a very minor medical procedure about 10 years back, and basically crapped out on the table and had to be resuscitated. I had never, EVER discussed this with ANYONE. Not that it was a deep, shameful secret, but rather that it was a private and personal thing, and not the sort of topic that comes up in ordinary conversation (“So, you died any lately?”).

But the movie, though the details and images were different, EXACTLY captured my feelings as it happened. And out popped all kinds of things no one else ever needs to hear 8-0. It just pulled it out of me. I had an absolute NEED to talk about it. Suddenly. After 10 years. Odd.

And I guess I still have a need to talk about it, or I would not be blathering what is a intensely personal experience across the world right now.

So, how many other Dopers have “died” on the table? Do you ever talk about it? Did it make a difference in the way you think about things?

I’m not really interested in a debate about near-death experiences, white lights, tunnels, and oxygen deprivation. I don’t mind personal experiences, (actually, I am interested in them). I DO mind debate about if it was real or a product of the mind. For the purposes of this thread, let’s just say that the product of the mind was real to the person, and leave it at that, shall we?

Actually, I don’t know what I am asking.

I had a genuinely interesting moment in my life (which was almost a moment in my death), and I never say anything to ANYONE about it. And I’m the kind of guy that can bore you to death over how Win XP doesn’t natively recognize a Highpoint 366 controller, and how I’m waiting for the Granite Bay Intel set to be released to do the tech refresh on my home computer 8-(. Then, suddenly, I see a movie that needs subtitles for Yank Gits that don’t understand Queen’s English, and I find myself COMPELLED (except for my pancreas, which went to bed hours before) to talk about it.

Has anyone else been there?

How did you handle talking about it?

Did you?

Ever?

Thanks.
Ps—searching the board on “near death experiences” certainly brings up a mixed bag of useless granola 8-0

Pps—although I’m asking for polling type responses, to me this is MPSISMS

2

I’m in the unusual position of not knowing whether I’ve died or not.

While I was coming out of the anaesthesia, I remember hearing that my heart had stopped on the operating table and that I had to be revived. My other memories from that time period are accurate so I think someone did really say something of that nature in my presence, but I can’t be sure that the speaker was refering to me and not another patient.

It was a couple of years before I got up the nerve to ask my mother if she knew anything about it, but she didn’t.

I’ve never asked to see if there’s a mention of any such incident in my medical records.

I think about it now and then, though.

My sister was hit by a car and had no vital signs when the paramedics arrived at the scene of the accident, but I’m not sure if she knows this. I’ve never heard her speak of it. She has no memory of the accident itself or time time period stretching from a few days before to about a month later, so I’m sure she doesn’t actually remember it.

3

What’s 8-0?

4

8-0=8
Glasses with a mouth open, I think. A smiley, took me a while to catch it too.

5

I am afraid you are going to be disappointed. this is like UFO’s and Near Death, and Things seen and heard.

If they have been there, a) they will understand. b) they will claim it is all nonsense.

If they have not been there, they will a) understand and b) or claim it is all nonsense.

And sometimes you are told to never talk about it and the choice is taken away from you.

6

Okay, Wikkit. I just thought it might really be numbers, since the :eek: smiley would have worked just as well to represent astonishment.