I died for 60 minutes and spent a month and a half on life support.

My life was pretty normal I was happy and seemed healthy until on May 5th of 2014 I was diagnosed with Aortic Stenosis. For the next following year I was monitored, watching my valve as it got smaller and I was preparing for surgery. I got a call from my doctors office and was informed that June 8th of 2015 would be my surgery date.

June 8 2015 came and I checked into the hospital at 6:00 am and got ready and prepared for surgery. I was terrified. I was having my aortic valve replaced with a cadaver valve. I had told my family and my wife that I loved them and how much they met to me if anything happened. I even went as far as writing each of them letters, not to be opened unless i passed away.

I went in for surgery and everything went according to plan, I came out doing as good as could be expected. i was released five days later allowed to go home. I was happy! I get home on June 13th 2015, and three hours after I am home my heart start to beat really fast and I feel really faint, so I am rushed back to the closest hospital just a few minutes from my home.

Upon arrival at the nearest hospital I am told that I am in A-fib. they have an ambulance take me back to the original hospital that did the surgery. When I am finally there I am admitted again and they try medications to regulate my heart rhythm, but nothing is working. Finally they decide to try Electro Cardioversion which means they are going to shock my heart back into normal rhythm.

After the Electro Cardioversion procedure is done I remember waking up and feeling very nauseous, and that's all I remember. Apparently that's when my heart stopped and I coded for sixty minutes I was told. They did CPR on me and it was done for so long that it messed up the valve from the first surgery so back into surgery I went for another replacement. I was then put on life support and in a coma for a month and a half.

Strange things happen when you basically die and are on life support, you have all kinds of either dreams or visions whatever you want to call them. I did see priests and they did ask me if I was ready to go to the other side. I had many nightmares, I even had a dream I was flying in a fighter plane with my Dad back in Vietnam. How strange is that?

When I finally woke up on July 30 2015, it was strange I thought I was in a car accident because I had been down for so long that I lost most of my muscle usage. I was also on a heart lung bypass machine called ECMO which stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. this machine goes in your artery in your left leg. So I had severe nerve damage in my left leg and I had to relearn how to use my arms and walk again, it would be a long road.

I spent the next two weeks in the hospital then I went to physical therapy where I spent another two weeks. Even learning how to remember things. Leaving there I came home with a walker still unsteady and with a lot of physical therapy left to do.

Today is September 12 2021 and I am now walking with a cane and doing pretty good. I still have episodes of A-fib but its controlled with a pacemaker that was put in about six months ago. I am again living a normal and happy life.

if your have read my story thank you and if I can give anyone hope its that there's always a tomorrow you just have to want it bad enough.

Thank You!