Part 2

So, what exactly is it that’s called a “near-death-experience?” Three events must take place for this term to be applied. Together, the first two make up what is known as, “clinical death,” the popular term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, otherwise known as cardiac arrest and pulmonary failure. Many have experienced the first two but not the third, which is, ultimately, what makes it a true NDE.  The third component is a “vivid and undeniably personal experience during the unconscious state.” The experience cannot be a “near-death-experience” without this last event.

Back to realtime: By the time the first officer arrived at the scene, 12 minutes after the 911 call – good thing for cell phones – I was already on my way to DTC…. You see, I won the lottery that day. The lottery I won was the fact that I went down, literally, at Boca Raton Fire Station’s front door. Paramedics were on me just about instantly. I was in cardiac arrest an estimated total of 3 minutes before they got me ticking again, (I wonder if they slipped me a Viagra). The brain can last maybe 5 to 6 minutes without blood or oxygen, so I guess, I was “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” (luckily it was the wrong door; a bar called “Heaven” caught my attention and I thought I’d stop for a quickie cocktail). 

I was loaded into an emergency transport vehicle (good thing they didn’t transport me via helicopter as they would have been charged $25 extra for the luggage – me). The pulmonary failure came courtesy of broken ribs that punctured my lungs. Tracheal intubation was performed, en route, to provide ventilation and a tracheotomy was the first procedure performed on me at arrival.

The second procedure performed, and this is where the “fun” really started, was being placed in a “medically induced coma.” A medically induced coma, to put the brain into hibernation so it can recuperate, is a standard yet controversial procedure used for head trauma.  

It is important to note that I was not wearing my helmet on this particular motorcycle jaunt; it was on the rear seat. I tell friends that, nowadays, I wear my helmet when I’m taking a shower – in case I slip and fall. By the way, amazingly enough, the total sum of injuries received when I went down were the broken ribs which punctured my lungs and the severe impact to my head; that was it. Even though my body ended up about 25 feet from bike, in the middle of US1, not one single bone was broken, not even a finger. As a matter of fact, the cardiac arrest was not caused by the impact; it was a totally isolated occurrence. Months later, when I had my medical records transferred to my doctor here in Miami, she told me the cardiac arrest actually saved my life, for had my heart been functioning properly and pumping blood to my brain I would have died at the scene! The cardiac arrest occurred just prior to impact, and had it not, at the very minimum a hole would have had to have been drilled into my skull to relieve pressure from the blood accumulating in the brain; fortunately, this was not needed.

 Medically induced comas, although standard procedure for head traumas, is still quite controversial because a number of patients have never “returned” from the “other side.” I myself did not “come back” until 35 days later.

And Part 3:  https://ghostriderandfriends.wordpress.com/part-3/