A woman claimed that she died on the operating table during brain surgery and watched surgeons as they drilled through her skull from above her body.
Pam Reynolds Lowery, from Atlanta, Georgia, who passed away in 2010, previously revealed that she had a near-death experience during a brain operation performed by Robert F. Spetzler at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona in 1991.
Pam, who was 35 at the time, reported a series of incredible experiences while she was technically ‘dead’, including meeting relatives who had passed away and not wanting to return to her own body.
The case resurfaced after podcaster Christina Randall, from Florida, researched the events for a fascinating YouTube video The Day I Died.
Christina explained that Pam had been experiencing symptoms of dizziness, temporary loss of speech and bouts of paralysis before a scan revealed that she had a large aneurysm close to her brain stem.
Pam Reynolds Lowery, from Atlanta, Georgia, claimed that she died on the operating table during brain surgery and watched surgeons as they drilled through her skull from above her body
Christina said: ‘As a last resort, a neurosurgeon of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona decided that a rarely performed procedure called a standstill operation could improve Pam’s chance of surviving.’
A standstill operation is a surgical procedure that involves cooling the patient’s body and stopping blood circulation.
Christina explained: ‘Pam’s body temperature was lowered to 50° Fahrenheit – or 10° Centigrade – her breathing and her heartbeat completely stopped and the blood was completely drained from her head.’
Pam’s eyes were taped shut, while a headset that played clicking sounds was put over her ears, ensuring that she was unconscious, enabled the anesthetist to confine that there was no activity in the patient’s brain.
However despite being technically ‘dead’, Pam had a number of unexplainable experiences and claimed she was able to watch her own surgery, even describing what instruments the doctors used.
Christina continued: ‘Pam said during this she felt more aware than normal and her vision was more focused and clearer than normal… her senses became so hyper-aware it was as if she had more than five senses.’
‘She was able to see the electric saw that was pulled out to use on her and she described it as looking like an electric toothbrush.’
Recalling the event years later, Pam told NBC: ‘I was looking down at the body. I knew it was my body but I didn’t care.
‘My vantage point was sort of sitting on the doctor’s shoulder. I remember the instrument in his hand, it looked like the handle of my electric toothbrush.
The incredible case resurfaced after podcaster Christina Randall, from Florida , researched the events for a fascinating YouTube video The Day I Died
‘I had assumed that they were going to open the skull with a saw. I had heard the term ‘saw’ but what I saw looked a lot more like a drill than a saw – he even had little bits that were kept in this case that looked like the case that my father stored his socket wrenches in when I was a child.’
Pam specifically mentioned her late uncle, who passed away at just 39, appeared to her as a guide.
She said: ‘My uncle was the one who brought me back down to the body but then I got to where the body was and I looked at the thing and I for sure did not want to get in it.’
Pam also recalled the conversations between doctors and nurses during her operation and described her body as looking ‘lifeless’ and she was reluctant to go back into.
She continued: ‘My uncle was the one who brought me back down to the body but then I got to where the body was and I looked at the thing and I for sure did not want to get in it.’
‘I didn’t want to get in but he kept reasoning with me he said “It’s like diving into a swimming pool, just jump in.” He pushed me, he gave me a little help there.’
After the seven-hour surgery was over, Pam was taken to recovery and after regaining consciousness, she left doctors astounded with her detailed recollections, which led experts to believe she had somehow witnessed her own life-saving surgery from outside her body.
Pam added: ‘If death is the worst thing that happens to us, what an incredible thing!’
There are some skeptics who have attempted to discredit Pam’s story, suggesting it might be a case of Anesthesia Awareness – a rare complication that can occur during general anesthesia when a patient regains some consciousness during surgery.
However this couldn’t of been the case for Pam as her eyes were taped shut and she had headphones on.
Cardiologist Michael Sabom was convinced that Pam’s experience was genuine, and he claims he has identified over a hundred similar instances.
Speaking to NBC at the time he said: ‘The people who said they watched their resuscitation as an out of body experience gave me a rather accurate visual pictures of what was going on in the room at the time, which would later be documented as accurate.
‘I can find no other way that they could of seen it, then from a point separated from their physical body.’