In Atalanta, Georgia,
one particular case was about to astonish experts
and doctors.
Dr. Michael Sabom, cardiologist,
was also studying near death experiences
when he came across one extraordinary account.
>> Pam's case is unique in the fact
that she had her near death experience at a time
she was fully instrumented and under
medical observation.
And I think if you wanted to construct
a laboratory experiment
where you had someone and took them
as close to death or perhaps even into death
as possible and then bring them back
and ask them what they could recall,
Pam's case probably comes closest to that
than any other so far that we know of.
>> Pam Reynolds was an established
songwriter/singer and a busy working mother.
In 1991, she became seriously ill.
>> I began to experience extreme dizziness,
loss of speech,
some difficulty in moving the body
and it was at that point that my physician
recommended that I have a CT scan.
And a CT scan of course showed the aneurysm
and it was a big one.
It was a giant aneurysm.
I was referred to a neurologist
and the neurologist gave me little or
no chance of survival at all.
>> But for Pam, there was one last hope.
She made what she assumed would be
her last journey,
2000 miles to the Barrow Neurological Institute
in Phoenix, Arizona.
>> I remember the bright sunshine.
The light in Phoenix, Arizona is piercing,
from sun up on.
And I remember getting into the shower.
I had been given a scrub kit
with a hard bristle brush and antibacterial solution
to reduce the chances of infection, I'm sure.
To this day I can remember the stinging
of that brush and that solution on my skin.
I can remember being placed on a gurney.
I remember the squeaking of the wheels.
>> Neurosurgeon, Dr. Robert Spetzler,
decided to take on Pam's case against all odds.
>> What we're looking at is the aneurysm
that she had which is at the very base of the brain.
This is the balloon that can burst
and cause this incredible catastrophe
in the patient's brain.
Why is this so difficult in this particular case?
I think probably easiest to see here by,
when you look at this plastic model of the head,
and we turn it around and we take out the top
of the brain.
What we're really talking about is that aneurysm
is all the way at the very base of the brain
and that is why it is so incredibly difficult
to get there.
So, you have to go somehow through the skull,
because remember the face is here
and the neck is down here,
to get down to this very difficult spot.
When we look at it on an actual brain,
we can actually see where that is.
That's the bottom of brain.
If that fit in here, it would be like this.
So, we're going to turn both of them around.
And now we're looking at what's called,
the brain stem which is this function.
All the function of the brain passes through
the brain stem.
And where this particular aneurysm was
is sitting right smack dab at the very middle
at the base of the brain.
And that's why it's so difficult to access,
that's why it's so difficult to treat,
and that's why it's so catastrophic when it bleeds.
>> The operation Pam was about to undergo
was known as, Operation Stand Still.
Pam's body temperature would be lowered
to between ten and fifteen degrees centigrade,
her heart and breathing stopped,
her brainwaves flattened,
and the blood drained from her head.
She would be clinically dead for a whole hour
of the operation.
>> What we want to do is we want to bring that brain
to a halt.
We don't just want the brain to be asleep,
we want the metabolic activity of the brain to stop.
Every measurable output that the body puts out,
really disappears completely.
So, that you have no measurable
neuronal activity whatsoever.
Prior to the operation starting,
a lot of activity goes on.
The patient is put to sleep.
The eyes are taped shut.
there are little clicking devices put in each ear
in order to monitor the brain.
The patient is then completely covered.
The only thing that's really exposed
is the area of the head where we work.
>> I don't remember an operating room.
I don't remember seeing Dr. Spetzler at all.
I was with a fellow,
one of his fellows was with me at that time.
After that, nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Until the sound.
[bone saw whirring]
And the sound was unpleasant.
It was guttural.
It was reminiscent of being in a dentist office.
And I remember the top of my head tingling
and I just sort of popped out of the top of my head.
And I was then 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 to my electric toothbrush.
I had assumed 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.
It even had little bits that were kept in this case
that looked like a case that my father stored his
socket wrenches in when I was a child.
And I remember distinctly hearing a female
voice saying,
>> We have a problem.
Her arteries are too small.
>> Try the other side.
>> It seemed to come from further
down on the table.
I do remember wondering, what are they doing?
Because this is brain surgery.
And what had happened was they accessed
the femoral arteries in order to drain the blood.
And I did not understand that.
>> In the process of my study,
I went and interviewed Dr. Spetzler and looked at
his operative report and I found that what she saw
from her out of body experience,
seemingly corresponded very accurately
to what had actually occurred.
She looked at the bone saw that was being used
to cut open her skull.
I didn't have any idea what this thing looked like.
She described it as an electric toothbrush
which I thought was ridiculous.
I had to send off for a picture of this saw
to Fort Worth, Texas to confirm whether or not
what she said it looked like actually was accurate.
And I was astounded when I saw the picture.
It indeed does resemble an electric toothbrush.
>> I don't think that the observations she made
were based on what she experienced as she went
into the operating room theater.
They were just not available to her.
For example, the drill and so on,
those things are all covered up.
They're not visible.
They were inside their packages.
You really don't begin to open until the patient
iIs completely asleep so that you maintain
a sterile environment.
>> She also heard a conversation
during the operation between Dr. Spetzler
and the cardiovascular surgeons who were cutting
into her legs to hook her up to
the heart-lung machine
When the cardiac surgeon incised her right groin,
she found that her veins and arteries were too small
and she had to go over to the left side.
And there was some conversation at the time
between the doctors.
Pam accurately recalled hearing that conversation.
>> At that stage in the operation,
nobody can observe, hear,
in that state.
And I find it inconceivable that your normal senses
such as hearing, let alone the fact that she
had clicking modules in each ear,
that there was any way for her to hear those
through normal auditory pathways.
>> So, again, this is very suggestive of the fact
that there was some sort of extrasensory perception
or out of body experience
or whatever occurring at the time that was allowing
Pam to hear accurately and seemingly see
accurately what was going on in the operating room
at the time.
>> I felt a presence.
I sort of turned around to look at it.
And that's when I saw the very tiny pinpoint of light.
And the light started to pull me.
And there was a physical sensation to the pulling
and I know how that must sound.
Nonetheless, it's true.
There was a physical sensation,
rather like going over a hill real fast,
in your tummy.
And I went toward the light.
The closer I got to the light, I began to discern
different figures,
different people.
And I distinctly heard my grandmother call me.
She has a very distinct voice.
And I immediately went to her.
And it felt great.
And I saw an uncle who passed away
when he was only thirty-nine years old.
He taught me a lot.
He taught me to play my first guitar.
And I saw many, many people I knew
and many, many I didn't know
but I knew I was somehow in someway
connected to them.
I asked if God was the light.
And the answer was,
no, God is not the light,
the light is what happens when God breathes.
And I stood there thinking,
I'm standing in the breath of God.
At some point in time,
I was reminded that it was time to go back.
Of course, I had made my decision to go back
before I ever laid down on that table
but you know, the more I was there,
the better I liked it.
And 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 because it looked pretty much
like what it was,
as in void of life.
And I knew it would hurt
so, I didn't want to get in.
He kept reasoning with me.
He said it's like diving into a swimming pool,
just jump in.
No.
[laughing]
What about the children?
You know what?
I think the children will be fine.
[Laughing]
Honey, you gotta go.
No.
He pushed me.
He gave me a little help there.
It's taken a long time, but I think I'm ready
to forgive him for that.
[Laughing]
But - I landed - I saw the body jump.
I saw it do this number.
And then he pushed me and I felt it
do this number.
>> This is a classic near death experience
occurring under extremely monitored
medical conditions where every known vial sign
and basically every clinical sign of life
and death was being monitored at the time.
And that's what makes her case so remarkable
and so valuable to us.
>> I don't have an explanation for it.
I don't know how it's possible for it to happen
considering the physiological state she's in.
At the same time, I have seen so many things
that I can't explain that I don't want to be
so arrogant as to be able to say,
that there's no way it can happen.
>> Pam's case points to the fact that somehow
she was able to retain coherent perception
and memory whilst clinically dead.