Dear Editor,
Over the past week, people have been asking me some very interesting questions; some persons are of the view that I seem to be taking a strong position on matters and they are asking questions such as, where am I getting my motivation from? What is driving me? I will be grateful if you would publish my life-changing story, an experience I have kept mostly to myself for the past eight months but I am now bursting to share. If there is anybody who is wondering whether there is a God and if there is power in the name of Jesus, I am saying don’t wonder anymore, it’s all real.
This would be the first time the following persons will hear my full story: the doctor and nurses at the Campbellville Health Centre, police officers from the Prashad Nagar Police Outpost, doctor(s) from the Georgetown Hospital, doctors and nurses from the Woodlands Hospital, doctors and nurses as well as my colleagues from GuySuCo, my daughter, my family, friends, pastor and all those who were involved and prayed for me.
On the 2nd of February, 2018, I was in a coma for nine hours. Shortly after midday, two policemen came from the Prashad Nagar Police Outpost regarding a matter that had occurred earlier that morning. They said that they wanted to ask me some questions. I invited them into our yard and we commenced the discussion; my daughter was also there. I don’t think any of us were prepared for what was about to happen.
At some point during the discussion, I started to feel a strange sensation, as if my life was moving up to my head from my feet and then I collapsed. The last thing I saw was one of my neighbours and one of her granddaughters rushing into our yard to my assistance. Then the extremely interesting experience began.
The instant I collapsed, while I could not respond to the environment around me or to sounds, I was still aware of everything that was happening around me. It was as though I was existing in parallel places (it was like I was unconscious but still conscious). I was hearing everything that was being done around me.
I had fallen into the arms of one of the policemen, who, with the assistance of the other, placed me on the ground behind the car in the garage. They then moved my body to underneath the front steps. My neighbour sent her granddaughter for methylated spirits and told my daughter to get some water to throw on me. They thought that I was unconscious but I was hearing everything.
My neighbour’s granddaughter ran over to their house while my daughter ran up our front stairs to get some water. They placed the methylated spirits by my nose and on my face and threw the water over my face. My neighbour then told the policemen to take me to the Campbellville Health Centre and then said that ‘she shouldda done catch back she self ’.
One of the policemen asked my daughter if we lived alone. She replied yes and he said, ‘so you have to take care of her now’. He probably thought that I would not have recovered completely.
The two policemen and my neighbour’s granddaughter lifted me up from the ground from under the front steps, and carried me into the police vehicle. I heard one of the policemen said ‘nothing like this never happen to me’.
My daughter came into the back of the vehicle and she hugged me. That was the best hug I probably have ever gotten from anyone. Since I was in a lifeless state, she had to steady up my body a couple of times but she hugged me as if her life depended on it.
At the Campbellville Health Centre, there was a female doctor and a nurse. The policemen stayed for a while and my daughter was there too. The doctor started to ask my daughter a lot of questions, including my age. My daughter told them my age but when she was asked about the year I was born, she said that she cannot remember. At that point, I thought that I did not realise that she did not know what year I was born. The doctor also asked her if she lived with me all the time and if I ever had seizures. I never had seizures in my life.
The doctor and the nurse kept pressing my chest and they also tried rubbing the bottom of my feet and touching me in other areas, and calling my name. What they do not know until now, was that I was hearing everything that was happening but just could not respond or communicate with them.
Another person came into the room, a male, and he started pressing my chest hard again. After a while, he told the doctor that he did not want to continue to press my chest anymore since he knew that it was painful. They kept lifting my eyelids and shining a light into my eyes.
The way how that nurse was pressing my chest, she was determined to keep me alive. She was really trying to press life back into me. When I recovered, I returned to the health centre and met the nurse and the doctor who were extremely surprised to see me in such good health. The nurse said to me ‘I was really pressing up your chest’. I wanted to respond, ‘so it was you who was pressing my chest so hard’.
I knew when one ambulance arrived. The nurse who came was very emotional. I heard her telling the doctor and nurse that I was one of the senior staff from the Head Office. I heard the doctor insisting that she was not sending me without oxygen. All of this conversation I was hearing and they were thinking that I was unconscious.
The other ambulance came and the nurse from GuySuCo went with us to the Georgetown Hospital and she was so caring. She was holding my body and keeping me from falling since the ambulance was driving very fast. My lifeless left hand kept slipping down and she had to be pulling it up and resting it on my abdomen.
When I realised that my daughter did not know the year that I was born, I also realised that I could not communicate with her. When I got to the Georgetown Hospital, they threw something on my nose as they were wheeling me inside.
My sister came to the Georgetown Hospital and as she saw me laying on the bed, I heard her say ‘God you know I can’t deal with these things’. The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) from GuySuCo came and he started to talk to my sister and the doctor on duty at the hospital. Between him and my sister, they then decided to take me to the Woodlands Hospital. All of this, I was hearing. This is the first time he would be aware that I was hearing everything.
What was remarkable was that the ambulance staff who took me to the Georgetown Hospital, for some strange reason, stayed, so the CMO asked if they would take me to Woodlands Hospital. They happily agreed. He further asked them if they had taken me to the Georgetown Hospital and what time that was. They told him, and he said ‘and you all were waiting all this time’. I had no sense of time. It seemed like I was just existing somewhere else but knew everything that was happening. I later learnt from the GuySuCo CMO that they were from the Guyana Fire Service. I would like to meet them someday.
At Woodlands Hospital, the CMO and my sister were there and the medical staff took me into a room (I later realized that it was the Intensive Care Unit). In the ICU, I was left alone for a while and the persons (nurses, etc.) were wondering where my relatives had gone. The medical personnel tried a number of things to assist me to regain consciousness. They kept calling my name, touching the bottom of my feet and other parts of my body. They also kept lifting my eyelids and shining a light into it.
I knew when all of my colleagues from GuySuCo came. I heard everything that they were saying. I also heard them praying. I later learnt that one of the persons praying was the Medex from the Uitvlugt Estate Health Centre. She would now know that I was hearing her. I heard a male colleague talking with my sister. One staff member from the Legal Department kept talking to me and calling my name in a sweet and gentle way. One of the staff from the Chief Executive’s Secretariat was telling the medical people that I had called her that morning and reported sick but she did not realise that I was so ill. Some persons were also outside of the ICU. I heard the Communications Staff talking to me.
At some point, my daughter returned and I heard one of the nurses telling her not to let me see her crying. They then asked her to sign a document, after which she started to cry. I later learnt that it was the form consenting for me to go on life support if all did not go well during the CT scan. All this time, I felt no emotions. I was just existing somewhere. I had no sense of time, emotions, etc.
They did a number of tests and I was connected to all kinds of machines. Later, I saw that 13 tests were done rapidly as they were trying to determine what had happened and what treatment was required.
All the time, I knew everything that was happening from the time I collapsed and almost throughout the entire period of the coma. The only thing I do not know was how I regained consciousness. My first sense of being conscious, that is, when I started to respond physically, was when they were putting the tube into my stomach.
I spent three days in the ICU and five days in the Woodlands Hospital, did not walk for the entire period, was fed from a tube for part of the time, and was hooked up to all sorts of machines.
Most of the persons who experienced what had happened, until they read this letter, thought that me being alive is a miracle but what they will now know, is that there was another miracle. I was in a coma for nine hours and was hearing everything that they were saying.
I have a lot of unanswered questions. How could I be in a coma for nine hours and recover with no memory loss, no stroke, and no other effects? How could I be in a coma for nine hours and by the next week was almost fully recovered? How could I be in a coma or unconscious for nine hours and still hear everything that was happening around me? Until now, I have only told very few persons that I was hearing everything.
One doctor said that I was in a transient state or a trance, that I was neither dead nor alive. Others felt that I was in a comatose state. Some persons said that I was unconscious. But unconscious for nine hours and recovered just like that? Is that possible medically?
In discussions with doctors about what happened, I realised that they are curious; some were particularly interested in what were my last thoughts before I collapsed. I think they are trying to determine what could trigger such a condition. Until now, no doctor or medical personnel have really explained to me how I recovered fully and so quickly. Or how can I be unconscious and still hear and process everything that was happening? One doctor said to me that ‘it is as if you came back from the dead’. Another doctor told me to write a book on the experience and I have started.
Finally, about my motivation these days, it is essentially based on this experience. I know that there is a God and that we are here for a purpose.
Thank you to all those who played a part in this experience, I know that it was very traumatic for many. To all of the doctors and nurses and medical personnel, indeed you have ‘Gifted Hands’! Thank you to the two policemen. Thank you to GuySuCo, my daughter, my family and all others!
I am also eternally grateful to God! Let us live well; there is a God indeed and he is all powerful!
Yours faithfully,
Audreyanna Thomas
