People Who Coded And Came Back Are Sharing What They Saw When They "Died," And The Answers Are Pretty Wild

Over on Quora, I was super fascinated when I saw people sharing their NDEs (near-death experiences), particularly when it came to their hearts or breathing stopping due to a medical emergency. Of course, you can't come back from literally *dying* (and you can't survive for more than a few minutes long without a heartbeat/breathing), but plenty of people have appeared medically dead by one metric only to make a full recovery thanks to modern medicine. Here's what they saw and experienced!

NOTE: The NDE is a pretty common phenomenon observed in all cultures. Scientists can't completely explain it, but many believe it's a form of hallucination when you're dying or that it has to do with brain activity continuing after death slightly longer than we thought. That being said, take the below stories with a grain of salt!

1."I coded three times while I was in labor with my daughter. I was shocked back twice, and once, they used epinephrine. It was as if I was seeing everything from above the hospital bed. I could see myself, but the fact I had coded was not connecting. I remember my twin and my husband being terrified and talking to me. My twin was begging me to come back. My husband was saying, 'Please don't leave us, please don't leave.' I told them, 'I'm ok, I'm ok,' but of course they couldn't hear me."

"I remember the doctor freaking out. He started yelling out the door for a crash cart. At some point, the doctor had been paged numerous times; he was supposed to be in surgery. I remember clear as day him screaming out the door to a nurse, 'Stop f***ing paging me! She is flatlining; get the other doctor.' Each time I woke up, I didn't understand why the doctor was screaming. The second time I came back, I asked why the doctor cursed the nurse out. Everyone in the room was surprised I heard that — then I crashed again. I felt like I was floating above the bed. My granny, who had died 2.5 years prior, was with me, and she told me I needed to go back. My son and new daughter needed a mom. I was not ready to leave Earth, so I am glad she guided me back.

After all of the hubbub died down, I was alive, alert, and very calm. I knew everything would be okay and that I was meant to be here. It was not my time. I am no longer afraid to die, just afraid to leave my kids."

—Daisy G., Quora

2."I was injured overseas and got hooked on pain meds; I am currently in recovery. I also deal with mental health issues, one of them being PTSD. I was visiting a battle buddy who lived in a motel room and dealt with similar stuff. I was experiencing a lot of panic attacks — unfortunately, that day, I had a lapse of judgment and got some Xanax off the street. The Xanax ended up being all fentanyl."

"The next thing I became aware of was this intense feeling I was crossing a barrier. It was light and beautiful, and I was just surrounded by calm. I was completely at peace, and I knew 100 percent without a question in my mind that I was crossing over to God (whatever that means to you). There were no pearly gates or tunnels, but I knew I was crossing over.

The next thing I knew, I was sucked back into my body, and then I was in the fight of my life. I had no idea what was happening, where I was, and who was surrounding me. I vaguely recall my battle buddy coming back and forth to me, telling me I was in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack (I think this was my subconscious trying to calm me), and I remember I thought the people surrounding me (EMTs and police officers) were Army Medics and that I was back overseas. The EMTs were hitting me with Narcan, which I found out later.

I was nonstop throwing up, trying my hardest to breathe, and pissing and shitting myself all over. The whole time I was being transferred from the motel to the hospital, I really didn't fully understand who or where I was; I was more scared than I have EVER been and absolutely FREEZING. Every breath felt like it was my last.

I ended up being in the hospital for two weeks. After returning home, I found the EMTs and police officers who saved me and thanked them, along with my battle buddy. He is the one who called 911 and kept doing CPR until they arrived. I am forever in their debt. I will never forget what the Police Officers and EMTs told me. They said they were literally going to call it; they hit me 12 times with the Narcan and tried everything they could, and they were going to give up when I started coming to. I do not want to make this sound religious, but someone was looking out for me."

—Jmart H., Quora

3."In September 2017, I overdosed on heroin and was dead. They had to Narcan me three times before I woke up. A month before I overdosed, my friend was killed while he was sleeping by his own father, who then killed himself. I had a lot of grief over it. I had known him since I was 14; we went to high school together. When I was dead, I remember being in this pure white room, and he was there. He didn't look like he did when he died; he looked like he had in high school. The first thing I said to him was, 'You know your dad killed you, right?' He said yes, and honestly, I don't remember most of the conversation. I didn't ask him things like, 'Where am I? What happened?' I just kind of knew where I was and that I wouldn’t be staying for long. Then he said it was time to go, and everything started to fade out into black, and I woke up as soon as the white light disappeared. My eyes flew open, and three paramedics and two cops were standing over me."

"The weirdest part was, I didn't remember it right away; it wasn't until about an hour later, when everything settled down, that it all came back. I still don't know if I was dreaming or if it was real. But honestly, I believe it was the latter."

—Lindsay D, Quora

4."I had a high fever when I was 25 years old. In desperation, with only the thought of getting the heat out of my body, I staggered to the bathroom to take a cold shower. When the water hit me, I collapsed and fell facedown on the floor of the tub. The next thing I knew was that I was looking down at my body from near the ceiling. My first reaction was that I was so relieved physically. I remember sighing before I realized that I had no lungs. My thoughts went like this: 'Uh oh, Now I've done it. I think I am dead. Hey, this not so bad.' I was happy that I still had consciousness. It was not the dreaded nonexistence."

"I then looked at my body lying below me and realized that I had never seen myself from the back before. Very fascinating. I stared at it for a minute or so. I also felt that I was free to go anywhere I wanted.I then felt a tunnel behind me and turned to look down the tunnel. I had the impression that there would be light at the end, but I did not actually see it. I was tempted to go down the tunnel to see it, but the thought hit me that if I did, I would never be back. I then looked at my body and asked myself if I was ready to leave it forever. But it was a young body, and I decided not to go. I felt that I could find the tunnel again if I died.

I hovered down to position myself (entity, spirit, soul, whatever you want to call it) and then took a moment to prepare to return to the body. I knew it would be back to the pain I had just left behind a few minutes earlier. I ducked my spirit head into my physical head, kind of like an old Topper movie, and I was back to the fever and the pain.Years later, I walked by a paper book rack and saw a book about near-death experiences. I picked it up and read accounts of others who had similar experiences. I thought, 'This is like what happened to me.' I still do not know what really happened."

—Robert Z., Quora

5."After I tried to kill myself, I remember a real blackness with no light, no tunnel, no cozy feelings. There were shapes I had never seen, but I knew they were moving things, and they were trying to get to me, and they were terrifying. I had something incredibly heavy in my right hand (which I thought felt like an old heavy sword), and I had to swing it at these things to keep them away. I remember to this day how heavy and hard work this was, but I needed to do it to keep them away. It felt like life after would be harder and more painful than the world that I was trying to leave. I then came back and felt numb for so long. I couldn't really hear or understand people. I have no idea what I saw. Maybe it was just what my brain conjured up to keep me from trying that again. All I know is that it was scary and stopped me from trying to kill myself again."

"My Grandmother, however, had a very different experience. She hated being brought back to life again as she felt happy and pain-free for the first time in years. She said that it was warm, she felt no pain, and she was picking flowers. Then, she joined a queue of people who were all in the same happy state. Then she got brought back and spent the next few years on 15 hours of oxygen every day, and she wanted to be dead again. I hope she got her happy ending."

—Karen S., Quora

6."I had a Cardiac Catheterization to investigate a problem I had/have. All was going well until the medical staff injected iodine contrast medium into my heart, and that's when we all found out I'm dangerously allergic to iodine! I was lying on the operating table, awake, listening to one of the nurses calling out what sounded like a very low heart rate to the rest of the team, and I realized it was going down rapidly; all hell broke loose amongst the medical team, but I felt strangely relaxed. I then heard a long continuous beeeeeeeep and the doctor saying, 'he's gone,' and I wondered, 'Who's gone?' Then I went to sleep."

"I woke up later, naked, covered in shit, in a recovery room with my girlfriend holding my hand, crying. The medical consultant was standing on my other side, holding my wrist.

I asked him what happened. He told me my heart had stopped when they'd injected the iodine contrast medium. They'd had a crash cart nearby, performed CPR, got my heart restarted with a defibrillator, and injected adrenaline directly into my heart!

I spent the following week in the hospital when I should have been in and out in a morning.

I experienced no panic at the time of my 'death.' I was bemused, in a detached way, that the team was discussing me. When I went to sleep, everything went silent and black. There was nothing else until I woke up.

No dead relatives, no host of angels, just a relaxed feeling as I slipped away, no panic nor worry. In all honesty, it left me less afraid of dying, as long as it's not for many years yet!"

—Steve H., Quora

7."The most accurate answer is also the shortest answer. Everything was a very bright white. It was totally silent, and there was NO sense of time. There was no one waiting for me — family members, friends, etc. — to help me deal with it. There was just nothing. One of the more curious parts for me was the absolute timelessness. I had no idea if I'd been gone for five minutes, five days, or a month....there was no way to relate a passage of time. I had to ask my cardiologist, who told me my heart had stopped for three minutes. There's nothing to fear about it. It's not only painless; it's actually a bit euphoric."

—Denny M., Quora

8."During a car accident, I remember feeling all at once the wind knocked out of me, a pain in my right side, and the sensation of my brain hitting against my skull. I saw a flash of white before losing consciousness. Then I was standing outside the car, looking at myself slumped over in my seat. The car was sideways in the road. My periphery was misty gray; only the car and road were visible. I looked to my right, and my husband, who had died several years earlier in a car accident, was standing next to me. I was alarmed and said, 'You're dead! You're dead!' He laughed and said, 'I know that!'"

"Then I woke up. My car was sideways in oncoming traffic like I had just seen in my unconscious state. I felt like the impact of the accident literally jolted my soul out of my body for a moment."

—Emily M., Quora

9."I crashed my car, and they later told me I'd died. I felt like I was dreaming, and I was at this big huge tree with a bunch of slides and being pushed to go down one of them. I was uneasy, so I left and went somewhere I could watch and decide what slide I should go down because some of the slides people were going down were the wrong slides, and I heard screaming."

"I didn't recognize anybody. I felt alone. It felt very, very real — people I didn't know were talking to me, and I didn't trust them. Suddenly, they put the paddles on me after trying everything else; the paddles got my heart going again, and here I am telling the story. Maybe it was a dream; maybe it was real. I really don't know."

—George M. Quora

10."On my way home from work, I was overcome by severe, crushing pain running down my jaw, chest, and left arm. At 51, I was having a heart attack. While being treated at the hospital, when I stood up to use the restroom, I collapsed onto the floor and lay there with the heart monitor still hooked up. My brother was there with me and said the lines were all flat, and alarms went off for a 'code blue.' The room filled with medical personnel that began CPR and lifesaving measures."

"I found myself in a place I can only describe as warm, soft, and glowing white. I could feel deep love pouring into me. I also understood how everything I knew in my world was connected and meant to be. There was a reason for every person I ever met and everything I ever experienced, both good and bad. My life was a tiny part of a greater plan that all made sense to me.

Then, a woman with long dark hair and glasses appeared beside me. She was not someone I knew, but she let me know she'd been with me throughout my entire life. Her mouth did not move, but I could hear her telling me, 'Not yet; they will need you.' I would've stayed there forever, but she sent me back.

I was revived after several minutes by the doctors and nurses. They said they were lucky to get me back. I stayed for another surgery and a pacemaker, then returned to my life. Now I know I am here for an important reason; there is a place in this master plan called life, just for me."

—Jackie M., Quora

11."I flat-lined during surgery. I saw my body, the medical team, and all the equipment, and I heard them swearing during some kind of commotion around me — it was pretty much like watching a movie, one you're not really very interested in, from a weird angle in the corner of the ceiling. I didn't feel any pain, emotion, sense of loss, or anything at all, and it wasn't a very upbeat moment either. My involvement in this came back when I jolted awake and bit the nurse, then hissed at the main surgeon in the room, 'Why the f were you swearing at me??'"

—Teodora G., Quora

12."I broke my arm and had surgery to rebuild it. A month goes by; I'm leaking puss from the still-open surgical wounds. It was finally decided to have me taken back to the hospital...to the same OR where the first surgery was. They sedated me, and the last thing I saw in the far corner of the room was a tall, skeletal, gaunt, thin man in a black hooded robe or cloak, and I knew it was my personal death."

"I just relaxed and thought, 'Let's get this show on the road.' Lights out. My next OFFICIAL memory was waking up in recovery. But I have a very unexplainable memory from during surgery, where I'm floating maybe 10–20 feet above myself on the table. The sound of the heart monitor calling a flatline and my surgeon panicking and trying to get a pulse finally pushing on my chest and the rhythm returning. The whole time, I remember this bony hand on my shoulder just giving me this vibe to stay calm and relaxed and that it would be okay.

Since then, I look at death as an old friend — someone who will be there at the end to walk me out the door."

—Eric L., Quora

13."When I was 14, I got into a car accident. I remember how bad the accident was. The car rolled at least five or six times. And then I saw it: a small recap of my life. It was like a short compilation video. I remember seeing a windmill I had seen when I was four or five, and never again after that. After that, I woke up, and the recap of my life was gone."

—Anusha J, Quora

14."In 1989, I was hit by a car. It is very hard to explain, but when I hit the ground, it was like I was made of sand and just disintegrated in all directions. I was unconscious and not responsive for seven minutes. Now, this is the weird part; I'd previously thought that if there is a Heaven, a dead family member or friend might greet you. Instead, I saw David Janssen, the actor who died in 1980. He was standing on a street corner. Everything was black and white. I could smell the smoke from his cigarette and the stale air you get in a city like Chicago. I could smell the gutters, urine, and food left in trash bins. I was halfway across the street (which is where I was when I got hit), and Mr. Janssen said to me, 'It's not time yet.'"

"The next thing I heard was a guy who worked in a corner store talking to the paramedics who had just arrived. But I will swear to my dying day that David Janssen told me it wasn't time yet."

—Wayne S., Quora

15."When I was just a kid, I nearly drowned, and I stopped breathing for a few minutes with no signs of a heartbeat. I remember being in a white...I wouldn't call it a room or even a space because that would imply that it was something I could move or look around in. I don't remember being aware of having a body — not to say that I didn't, but I was completely unaware of it. What I remember most vividly was the feeling of complete peace: how unremarkable it all was. There was no fear, pain, or happiness. I remember feeling that this was always how it was meant to be and that it was okay. I remember being aware that someone was next to me, that they had been there for a while, and that it was normal."

"Imagine walking with someone you've known for a while. There is no need or desire to talk; you are just enjoying your walk. That someone felt familiar and un-astonishing, just like an old friend that has always been there. There was an understanding that I was, at that moment, making a decision: do I stay or do I go?

I remember in front of me, I could see myself being carried by my dad. I saw the water on his hair slowly, vividly, accumulating and forming a droplet. The drop forms and finally falls from the tip of his hair again, very, very slowly. That's when things stop moving so slow and very quickly, I realized; that's real…that's what's real and I'm real and I should be there. Then I remember seeing, not feeling, a rush of movement, like the kind of blur you see in space movies when they pass through a wormhole or something, just this blur of things passing in your periphery at unimaginable speeds. Then I have this very vague memory of feeling myself coughing up water and then looking at my dad above me."

—don'tuel M, Quora

16."I went into anaphylactic shock while jogging past some fields that had just been sprayed with pesticides. After 15–20 minutes, that caused cardiac arrest and, finally, my heart stopped. Paramedics were there almost immediately. They started CPR and then stuck an adrenaline needle directly into my heart (just like the scene in Pulp Fiction). I woke up in the back of an ambulance with the needle still sticking out of my chest. For me, the process of dying was horrific, painful, and terrifying. Right before everything went black, I absolutely knew I was going to die. When it happened, it came as a relief. For the period I was 'dead,' I felt nothing, I didn't see or hear anything, I was just gone. 'Coming back' was a shock, mentally. There was a great deal of physical pain — from the heart needle, the broken ribs, etc. On top of all that, I was pissed off — pain, to peace, and then back to pain was not a fun experience."

—Rachel F., Quora

17."Twice: Once, when I was three, I died during an operation and landed up in 'the tunnel.' It wasn't frightening, but then I didn't know what 'the tunnel' was. I only knew I was being carried along toward a light…and then I woke up! Years later, I read about 'the tunnel' being common in near-death experiences. Many years later, during a cancer operation, I 'died' again, and sure enough, there was the tunnel. At that point, I didn't want to go into the light.' In fact, I was mostly pissed off at the idea. I think I said something like, 'Are you kidding me?'"

"I woke up with all kinds of tubes sticking out of my body; obviously, I was still alive. I felt like the dog's dinner, but I was alive."

—Noah H., Quora

18."I was declared clinically dead for 49 seconds before I was resuscitated. I was terrified; it felt like I was trying to stop myself from falling. The odd thing was that as I neared the 'bottom', so to speak, everything slowed down and I felt a sense of calm and relief like I have never felt before. I remember things getting dim and quiet, and then they started getting really bright. I felt like I was floating in water. As I tried to focus, I could make out far-off shapes in the light. I couldn't see anything in detail, but there were definite shapes."

"Then there was the sound of wind roaring in my ears, and I felt myself swallow something. Things went black again quickly, and when I opened my eyes, I was on a hospital bed, staring at a bunch of nurses and doctors.

Afterward, I felt very sad, as if I had lost something. I suffered from a severe depression that lasted days, but I eventually recovered. I have no idea what to make of what happened to me."

—Moser G., Quora

19."I died for three and a half minutes in an ambulance. I had a bad asthma attack. In the ambulance, I had total respiratory failure and died. I remember hearing, 'We lost her!' and then being up on the ceiling, watching the paramedics using the paddles on me. But I didn't recognize myself. I just saw a body. The weird thing was, I was laughing at the paramedics and yelling, 'You're never going to get her started.' I kept laughing until I heard a girl in the front of the ambulance crying and saying, 'No! No! She can't be gone. No! No!' and just crying so hard. The ambulance driver was trying to comfort her, but she was hysterical. I remember thinking, 'This person really loved her' and feeling sad for her."

"I was able to verify what I saw. The girl in the front was my roommate. She came to visit me and said, 'I was freaking out!' I said, 'I know,' and went on to tell her everything I saw while I was dead. She verified everything I saw was exactly what had happened, but she thought somebody had to have told me or that I read the charts or something. I told her, 'All they said was I died for three and a half minutes, and they had to resuscitate me.' I told her the driver tried to calm her down by rubbing her arm and holding her hand and that he was very young and had tears in his eyes because she was so brokenhearted. She finally believed I did see everything while I was dead."

—Miriam T., Quora

20."I died having my second daughter during an emergency C-section. I remember watching them working on my body, doing CPR, using the defibrillator, watching them trying to stop my internal bleeding, ripping out staples, and closing me back up; I watched it all from above in the O.R. I remember hearing the doctors and nurses. I remember feeling odd and seeing myself dead, lying on the table, and fully knowing I was gone from that body."

"I can remember wanting to see my new daughter. I watched my doctor plunge a shot of adrenaline into my chest, and then the doctors rubbed my sternum, telling me to come back, while a nurse rubbed my arm and leg, saying something. I heard '7:58,' felt a tug, and then I woke up alive in a different room with the left side of my body unable to move and feeling cold and in pain. I was able to tell my doctors everything, and they said I couldn't have seen or known any of it due to my heart being stopped. My second daughter is now 21 years old. I can still remember it all like it was yesterday."

—Kookie T., Quora

21."When my son was born, he had the cord wrapped around his neck, and they couldn't get him to breathe. I also hemorrhage very badly. He was born in blood, not water. I was so cold and hurting and sliding into shock as they tried to get my son to breathe...All of a sudden, I was warm and feeling more loved than I had ever felt in my life. It was very clear to me that I could go (die) or stay (live). I knew whatever choice I made, the baby would go with me. I decided that I wanted to stay and be with my older daughter as she grew up. The INSTANT I made that decision, I was slammed back into my miserable body, and my son took his first breath."

—Kristin C, Quora

22."When the car first hit, I don't remember anything. I woke up in a ditch, staring up at the sky with one eye, unable to move, pressed against the ground, with blood dripping down my head. I heard my dad weakly choke out, 'Kade? Kaaaddee? Kade…' I called out to him, and we had a short, private, painful conversation basically to the effect of 'Take care of your mother and survive. I've always loved you.'"

"I blacked out and woke up in the ambulance. The ambulance workers helped me perk up and stay hopeful when they told me my dad had made it to the hospital with me. The last thing I remember normally is being wheeled into the emergency operating room while saying, 'Where's my dad? They said he's here. Daaadd?' Then, my normal memory cut off. The doctors later informed my family that they lost me for a short time.

What I felt wasn't fear or relief or happiness or pain. I didn't see a lake of fire or a palace in the clouds. It felt like everything, and nothing was happening to me. But I wasn't scared because the one familiar thing I did see was my dad, or what I felt was my dad. I just felt like, for a single moment, my dad and I didn't say anything to each other; we just had one moment where I understood that this was the last moment he and I would ever share. And then he walked off, but I didn't feel the fear from him that I felt before, I think, because he knew I'd be the one who made it. When I woke up, my family kept letting me believe my dad was alive and survived because they were worried if I found out the truth that, I'd give up while I was still semi-critical. But two days later, I was told my dad died.

Death was long and overwhelming, but it wasn't scary or peaceful or painful; it just made sense. Like when you go lay down after an intense workout and feel like you belong in that bed."

—Kade, Quora

23."I rose above my body and peacefully watched others trying to start my heart again. I began moving as if on a flat escalator with other people I did not know. Along the sides of the escalator were people waiting for us. I knew my intended group was up ahead, but I could not make out their faces. Behind them was a city of lights, like a 3D grid with the brightest colored lights at the intersection of each grid line, and the light would fade and blend into the beam from the other intersection. It was beautiful and peaceful. Suddenly, I was whooshed backward and opened my eyes to see my shoe beside the shower drain. The people in the room had thrown me in a cold shower to bring me back."

—Lynda S., Quora

24."My uncle was in surgery quite a few years ago, and he died on the operating table for six minutes. He called my Mom when he got home from the hospital to make sure he had never done anything to hurt her and apologize for anything he may have done wrong. He said, 'I want to make sure I am not hurting anyone in my life.' Then he told her the story. He woke up in a room, and all the family was there except my uncle and Mom. He kept saying, 'Everybody was there.' My Mom asked him what everybody was doing. 'They were playing cards, and I sat down and asked to be dealt a hand. And Virginia (their sister) said, 'Oh, you can't play. You have to go back.'"

"He said, 'I don't want to go back. I want to play cards with you all today.' And he was suddenly back in his body. He told my Mom he wanted to go back so badly. 'Everybody was there but you and me.' So, years later, my Mom, Dad, and uncle are all there. I really doubt they've been playing cards all this time. I think it was how they could explain everybody together."

—LeAnn G., Quora

25."Four years ago, I had the bad fortune of having a cardiac arrest, and the good fortune of having it as a cardiovascular surgeon was walking by, a gurney was available, and an OR was open. My dying words were, 'I don't feel too good.' I remember passing up through a tunnel into a place of light and thinking to myself, gee, those were dumb last words."

"The place I went was vivid but not like anything I've seen played up in books. I was aware of myself, but I felt connected to everyone and everything and everywhere. The experience was so qualitatively different from life in a physical body that I have difficulty explaining it.

While I was wherever I was, I was getting CPR, EPI, and atropine. Probably as I was about to come to, I imagined my mother coming over to me and telling me, 'You aren't going to be here very long.' At one point, I took a big gasp and was awake. The doctor asked me to count to five. His native language happened to be Italian. I don't speak Italian. I started counting in Italian. I thought to myself, 'I've come back to the wrong body,' and I flatlined again. I woke up to a horrendous inky blackness, no sensation, a feeling of utter isolation, and then I heard the doctor say, '360, no detectible pulse.' I opened my eyes, and the doctor explained that there was no time to give me an anesthetic before he put a balloon in my heart.

Did I die and go to the afterlife? I think so, but I think the afterlife isn't what it's cracked up to be."

—Robert F., Quora

26.And finally..."I died for about five minutes one day. I saw/felt/heard/tasted/smelled/sensed nothing. Even the 'black' I saw wasn't really black. There was a complete absence of any and all senses. I was nowhere. I felt nothing. I needed nothing. I missed nothing. I was no one. And there was nowhere to go. When I opened my eyes, I didn't miss where I'd been. I had no desire to return. As a Catholic, I still can't explain this, but it doesn't feel counter to my faith. It's not something I can reconcile, but it's not something I think needs reconciling. It just was."

—Jacqueline Q., Quora

Have you ever had a near-death experience? What happened? Let us know in the comments below.

Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.