'I died on operating table – when I woke again I saw something impossible'

A woman who recalls 'floating above her body' during a dramatic brain surgery procedure says that slipping back into her body felt like 'diving into ice water'

A woman who was put into a “near death” during brain surgery she “floated above a doctor’s shoulder” and witnessed details she shouldn't have been able to see.

The case of Pam Reynolds Lowery is one of the most well-documented and significant “near death experience” accounts on record. Podcaster Christina Randall, who has extensively researched the case, explains that Pam had been experiencing symptoms of dizziness, temporary loss of speech and bouts of paralysis. A scan revealed that she had a large aneurysm close to her brain stem.

Because of the aneurysm’s location, surgery to repair it would be extremely risky. 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” effectively reduces the patient’s vital signs to a near-death sate. 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.”

As a matter of routine, Pam’s eyes were taped shut and a headset that played a series of loud clocking sounds was placed over her ears. The sounds, which would have been intensely annoying if Pam had been conscious, enabled the anaesthetist to confine that there was no activity in the patient’s brain.

But despite this, Pam reported a series of incredible experiences while she was technically “dead.” Pam, who was a musician, identified a continuous tone corresponding to the note D. This sound somehow lifted her consciousness out of her body. Christina recalled: “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.”

With this unnaturally-clear perception Pam watched as the surgeons drilled through her skull to reach the aneurysm. “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,” Christina went on.

There was number of telling details that led experts to believe that Pam had somehow witnessed the dramatic life-saving procedure from outside her own body. In an interview, Pam recalled: “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."

She added: “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 even remembered details of discussions that the doctors and nurses had while they were operating on her. But as she calmly observed the operation, she became aware that she was not alone. Christina said: “When she tried making out the figures, she realised that it was her grandmother and uncle and other deceased people that she knew.”

In particular, Pam said, her late uncle – who had died when he was only 39 – seemed to be taking the part of a guide. She went on: “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 said her body looked “lifeless’ and she she was reluctant to go back into it. She went on: “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.”

She recalled the feeling of re-entering her body was like "jumping into ice-water".

After a gruelling seven-hour procedure Pam was wheeled into recovery. As soon as she came to, she stunned doctors with her recollections of what had happened while she was technically “dead”.

Some sceptics have attempted to debunk Pam’s story, suggesting it might be a case of Anaesthesia Awareness – condition where patients can recall details of surgery despite being under general anaesthetic. But in this case, Pam’s eyes had been taped shut and her hearing would have been blocked by the loud audio clicks coming from her headphones.

Cardiologist Michael Sabom is convinced that Pam’s case is genuine, though, and he’s identified over a hundred instances of anaesthetised or seriously-injured having an experience that hints at some sort of life after death.