To ask if you've ever had a near death experience and what went through your mind?

Yes I have experienced this, and was also very calm and accepting. I felt no panic or fear but I did feel a bit sad.

My main thoughts were that I felt sadness because I was too young to die and sadness for my young son that he wouldn't have me around anymore. Then I remember thinking how hard it was going to be for my DH and that I hoped everyone would rally round and support him.

It was a massively impactful experience for me!

I rolled my car on the A12. It was a Fiat Panda with a soft roof. No idea what happened to trigger it. As I hurtled into the Central Reservation everything froze and I felt my life flash before my eyes. Walked away with some minor bruising.

A foreign lorry changed lanes on the M1 just as we had almost finished passing it in our little MX5 - the driver wasn't aware of our car at all. I saw the front bumper in my window and then wondered why we were reversing at speed down a hill. We weren't - the lorry spun the car at 70mph, we hit the central reservation and then the lorry hit us again and sent the car spinning towards the hard shoulder. I remember wondering why I couldn't move my head. It all happened very slowly but my brain couldn't process what was happening at all. I was eating a cheese and onion pasty at the time and it ended up splattered over every window of the car.

Second time - major heart attack, totally blocked artery. Was very calm, totally unaware of what was happening and remained unaware until I overheard a nurse talking to my husband 12 hours later. Not entirely sure I was that close to death but I wouldn't have survived had it not been for a speedy pair of paramedics and a VIP pass straight into the cath lab.

I was very ill, and remember suddenly feeling chilled and shaking and thinking ‘that’s strange, it’s a warm day’. Then i was convinced I was very deep underwater and the surface was too far away, so I’d just stay down here. I wasn’t panicked, just observing dispassionately. I had to be resuscitated, but made a full recovery.

Yes awful car crash at 60mph lucky to survive only me in the car as it was snaking and twisting before the impact I just thought 'I'll never see my mum again' obviously survived it but lost my mum 4 years ago and it's broken my heart but I can only imagine how much losing a child would of haunted her , she had already experienced alot of trauma and loss so I'm glad ( if that's the right word) it's me that bears this grief and not her for this relationship

Nearly squashed between 2 moving trams in Hong Kong - never run so fast - would've been smeary paste if I'd stayed where I was

I have but I was literally unconscious for the entire time so don’t remember a thing. DH said they had to bring a back up ambulance plus the Police to divert traffic as we stopped on a roundabout and the cars were backed up for a mile or so.

I agree it's strangely comforting. As someone with a huge amount of anxiety, it's weird to know that death won't be "bad" if that makes any sense?

The acceptance is strangely comforting. It goes against all your instincts but when it happened to me I just thought this isn't what I wanted but I know there's nothing I can do about it, this isn't in my control anymore so I had to let go. I believed that was the end so closed my eyes and just waited and hoped it wouldn't hurt too much. The time between closing my eyes to let go and opening them again a week later felt like just a few seconds. That empty gap between going and coming back I have no memory of but that was the week I was wired up to all kinds of machines forcing oxygen in to me and keeping me alive. It was morning when I woke up again completely confused because I thought that the nurse I saw before I left had come with me.

@ShadowoftheSentinels for me at least there was a rather odd bit after acceptance of weird thoughts e.g. I won't be able to xyz tomorrow and I was looking forward to it, and my DBro hasn't been to a funeral before etc.

My mum sadly passed away three months ago and I always remember her telling the story of my birth in which she had pre-eclampsia and I was born by emergency c-section 6 weeks early.

During the operation, she descibed floating up to the ceiling and was able to see the surgeons operating on her before travelling down a tunnel with a light at the end of it. She said she arrived in the most beautiful garden with her beloved dad there to greet her. However, a voice said it wasn't her time yet and she returned to her phyical body.

There is some comfort knowing she is up there now in the peaceful place she described.

That is absolutely horrifying. I'm so glad you recovered from that !!

I had breast cancer last year and was given a lot of chemo to get rid of it. The chemo made me very unwell, I had pain in my leg (thought it was a pulled/tight hamstring) it was a dvt, which turned into a pulmonary embolism.

By the time I had a chest scan I couldn’t stand up and the dr scanning me did an emergency call out in the hospital, they carted me off to emergency. Emergency triaged me up to ICU which is basically intensive care. They kept giving me blood thinner medication but I still couldn’t stand up. Every time I moved I couldn’t breathe properly and I was extremely anxious as I knew I was extremely unwell. Hooked up to all sorts of monitors, oxygen in my nose etc.

I got to the point where I was just saying please, please, please to the nurse and I couldn’t look at her as I could feel myself losing consciousness. It was very scary.

Then the heart Dr said it’s time to give you the clot buster medication. So they gave me back and literally within an hour or so I could stand up again.

Twenty years ago I would have died. Either ovarian or breast cancer would have got me. But… the clot buster worked. The chemo worked (nearly killed me but I’ll take it). The surgery worked.

Last year I cheated death several times.

Only due to the innovation of medical science.

I am beyond lucky. I am cancer free. I might get a bit longer. Six months on I get stressed out about normal stuff. What’s for dinner etc…

Thank you for the thread. I need to keep remembering how lucky I am.

So comforting to read so many of these stories, not just for ourselves when the time comes but when thinking of family members who have died.

The sense that I am getting is that the body will fight whilst it can to survive (and this is often traumatic) but at at certain point, when there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves anymore then a sense of calm often takes over, an acceptance. Hugely comforting and also reassuring so many are describing such similar experiences.

Over a decade ago I had spine surgery. I was only back on the ward a few hours when i started vomiting blood and was rushed to intense care suffering multiple embolisms in my heart and lungs. Nobody was able to explain why it happened but I spent a week unconscious while they battled to save me. I have a week of my life that I have no memory of. When it happened I remember I couldn't breathe properly and felt myself fading. I was scared and upset and angry that I wouldn't get to say goodbye to my family and fought to stay awake because i didn't want to die, but then this feeling of calm and peace washed over me and I felt acceptance that I was not going to survive. I remember wanting them to take my bed outside so I could look at the sky and hear the birds while I died peacefully. I couldn't fight any longer and closed my eyes and accepted my fate then opened my eyes again and it was a week later. I remembered the same nurse who was there when I used to be alive and couldn't understand why she came with me. They had to show me a newspaper because I didn't believe them when they said I had been asleep for a week. Sorry to disappoint anyone but there were no angels or singing. Just darkness. That's all I remember before I came back.

I'm also never going white water rafting after reading this.

Motorway car accident after being rammed at 70mph concluding in a head on impact into a barrier, lost both front wheels, the bonnet, the windscreen, and the doors were crumpled shut. All I could think was while we were spinning repeatedly round and round was, Ahhh shit... I'm never going to see anyone again? I'm never going to see any one again. No panic or terror, just resigned disappointment really. A split second before the impact I thought, Oh this is what's next, ok, this is going to hurt, I'm at least going to lose my legs now. Oh well, here we go, kind of thing. It has one hundred percent informed the way I live the rest of my life, it was life changing in lots of ways.

I'm not OP, but, it's another white water one. I don't recall actually getting out. As one or two others have said I assume as i relaxed I floated out.

Yes I was pronounced dead when i was 10/11 years old. I had a very high fever. It was very calm feeling which i can never forget even I was so young. For some reason my eyes stayed open and could see my family crying but I was at peace. Then my dad shut my eyes. Next thing I remember waking up in the hospital starving.
Yes this experience was surreal

Not me but I watched a programme about someone who was parachuting. His main parachute failed to open. So he pulled the cord for the reserve parachute. Which also failed to open.

He felt calm and peaceful, and thought how beautiful the blue sky was.

Then he crashed into a tree, and lived to tell the tale - on this programme.

I'm never going white water rafting, paragliding or eating lamb. Just as a precaution.

Another white water rafting experience...

We were all tipped out of the boat mid-rapid. dh was close to a rock and scrambled on, multiple really deep lacerations. Loads of panic and hurt.

I was mid stream whirlstorm (going through a river rapid without a boat). I expected I ws going to die in this.

It was like being in a washing machine.

And there was an incredible calm, and a peace. I felt sad that I wouldn't see my grandchildren grow up, but it was a sad acceptance rather than an overwhelming grief.

Massive bleed after I gave birth whilst dh had popped out to get the baby clothes, they tried everything to stop the bleed, nothing worked. They wanted to take me to theatre - I was calm but I needed to say goodbye to dh, it was all that mattered and the nurse refused to get him - I held off my consent to surgery till the consultant screamed at the nurse to bring dh in - I could then die in peace.

I'm so sorry that this happened to you {and the other DV posts} evil men.
I too used to get severely clobbered as a child by Dad if he got angry about something, and I too thought I might die from it.
I used to cry out ''I'm dead''..as the blows and kicks rained down for what felt like an eternity , but probably was only a minute or two.