Patty Ellen, who feared death throughout her childhood, briefly died during the birth of her baby and her near-death experience completely changed her. "The biggest, most important thing is that I'm no longer afraid to die," she says. "And the weird thing is that I can't wait to go back."
The Moment of Death
In a video for the NDE Diary YouTube channel, Patty described the moment she "died" on the operating table during an emergency caesarian section. "I remember being wheeled in... I remember hearing the sound of the heart monitor beeping. Then I remember it going flat. And at the very same moment that I heard it go beep, I rose out of my body and I was like just hovering there. I remember seeing a body. I remember seeing the doctors. I remember seeing everything that was going on."
Within moments she was no longer in the operating theatre but "somewhere else." She found herself at the centre of a 360-degree "video screen" on which she was shown the key events of her life. "It was stopping at certain points in my life," Patty recalled. "Some were good, some were not so good in the way I treated people."
Fear of Hell and a Comforting Presence
Because the replay seemed to pause at her worst moments, Patty began to worry it could be the beginning of an eternity in Hell. "I think we all have done some things that we were not proud of, or treated people badly or said an unkind word or something like that. Those are the things that I'm talking about, that [the replay] was stopping at. For a split second, I thought to myself, 'I'm going to Hell... they're showing me this because they're going to say to me 'You're going to Hell'.'"
But at that point, Patty became aware of someone standing next to her. "I felt them put a hand on my shoulder and tell me that I was doing okay and not to worry." She claimed the message of comfort was transmitted telepathically, adding: "All you have to do is think something and the other person knows it... I wish that we could communicate like that now."
The Choice to Return
While the replay focused on her failings, the message that came across most strongly was one of forgiveness. Patty claimed: "I believe it's so important for our soul, for our spirit, and not only to forgive other people, but to forgive ourselves. I had a really hard time forgiving myself."
As the out-of-body experience ended, Patty heard her baby's first cry. "The very same moment that he was crying, the person that was with me, who I didn't recognise, I felt like he loved me forever and ever. It was almost like he just loved me for eternity from back from before I was born until my future. I just felt like he loved me forever and is going to love me forever."
The mysterious presence telepathically gave Patty the choice of remaining where she was or going back to her life. Knowing her baby had just been born, she immediately chose to return. "I was brought back to the hospital room where I saw doctors and nurses, about six or seven [of them]. I believe that they were giving me CPR because I remember them saying, 'She's not breathing.' At that moment when the person asked me, 'What do you want to do?' I was immediately shot back into my body when I said, 'I want to be with my baby.' The next day, I was in so much pain. My chest was hurting so badly."
Lesson Learned
Patty says she returned with a valuable lesson: "The biggest thing that I took back from this is that what I was told is that we're here to learn unconditional love, compassion, forgiveness, kindness, acceptance, you know, all these things is what I was told. This is what we are here to do."
