A Spanish man who returned from the brink after his heart stopped has spoken about the profound impact of what he believes was a near-death experience (NDE). Instagram user Eduardo (@fenix_eduardomj) says he died for 60 minutes — and doctors feared the worst. But he claims he came back with a new "mission" and a story about what he believes was a glimpse of the afterlife.
Heart stopped for an hour
Speaking in a video for his social media accounts that has drawn much attention online, he said: "In February last year, 2025, when I was 34, my heart stopped for an hour."
Eduardo said that before his near-death experience, he'd been in good health and regularly played tennis. But it was after a game that he began to feel unwell — setting the stage for the terrifying incident that followed.
He chose to head to the hospital, but he deteriorated. Once there, he was placed on a stretcher. He went into cardiac arrest three times, and doctors worked to revive him.
Experiences in the afterlife
"I woke up the next day in the ICU, and that's when I began to remember what I'd seen in the afterlife." Eduardo later shed light on his most notable experiences.
He explained that he'd been with his late grandfather and had also found himself in a courtroom, where "they told me I couldn't stay there, that I had to go back because I hadn't completed my mission."
Eduardo, who's adamant that it wasn't a dream, claims that at one point, he was in the sky above an ambulance. Inside, he says he was unconscious, and his heart had stopped. He recalled: "I was unconscious inside the ambulance. Whilst being transferred from one hospital to another, my heart stopped, and that's when your soul, spirit or consciousness leaves your body, and you can see yourself."
Eduardo later learned that, while unconscious, he had been taken to a different hospital. He said it became the defining part of the experience, proof, to him, that there is "something beyond life."
Return and new mission
He added that, during the courtroom experience, his grandfather, who had died two decades earlier, was next to him. He said others then deliberated over whether he should be sent back to the living.
Once it was decided that he should go back, Eduardo found himself feeling unable to return as his "whole body ached", but his grandfather helped him through the use of what was described as a type of wind.
"It was a very brief experience, but it felt very real. I was at peace; I didn't miss life", he explained.
Eduardo eventually woke up and asked whether he'd been taken to hospital with a police escort — something he couldn't have known, as he was unconscious at the time — leaving his family stunned.
He believes he "had to come back" because he "hadn't been doing what I really wanted to do for five years". Eduardo says this was to continue the legacy of Spanish nature presenter Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente.
Eduardo has since launched the "Phoenix Project" to pursue his goals, teaching people how to be happy so they can better care for animals and the environment. He said: "My mission is to build the @fenix_society_ project, an initiative to drive us all to fight for our dreams and live in alignment with who we truly are, so that we may live in harmony with everything around us."
