My aunt got in to a car accident tonight after reportedly seeing a white light and then passing out. When I heard the news my first thought was “I just read about something like that on the Dope!”
Did I? I can’t find anything via search.
My aunt is “fine” right now, as it were. She’s in the hospital for tests. The “good” news is that she is a coumadin patient so it’s very unlikely to have been a stroke. The bad news is everything else.
My search-foo is weak. I have no thread for you.
I’ve heard the white light prelude to unconsciousness (near death experience) is combination of low oxygen & high CO2 concentrations in the blood. If she had a transient episode of shallow breathing, cardiac arrest or stroke it would be easy enough to see how that could happen. You said it wasn’t likely a stroke, but a well-running car puts out a fair quantity of CO2 per mile. Conceivably she could have had some kind of exhaust leak into the car, poor O2 saturation for some other reason and a drop in blood pressure and then boom boom out went the lights. At the hospital she wouldn’t come across as a stroke or heart attack patient, and if her car is totaled any exhaust problem would never be looked into.
How’s she doing now?
Thanks for checking, Great Sun Jester.
I had forgotten that she has a pacemaker/defibrillator. I guess what happened is that her heartbeat became irregular and the defib did it’s job, hence the bright light. As to why her heart went wacky, that is still a mystery.
So whatever I thought I had read here, whatever cause someone else to see bright light and pass out, that probably doesn’t apply here.
My aunt is back home after 2 days in the hospital and doing well! Seems no worse for the wear! Luckilly she was driving in a slow commercial area, and ran softly into a tree.