Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands

About 18% of cardiac arrest survivors report a near-death experience (NDE), and 12% describe a core experience. The occurrence of NDE was not linked to how long the heart stopped or the person was unconscious, nor to medication or fear of death beforehand. Factors that did affect NDE frequency included age, surviving a first heart attack, having multiple resuscitations, a prior NDE, and memory problems after prolonged CPR. Depth of the experience was influenced by sex, being resuscitated outside the hospital, and fear before cardiac arrest. Patients who had an NDE, especially a deep one, were significantly more likely to die within 30 days of CPR. The personal transformation after NDE took years and differed from survivors without NDE.

Study at a glance

Abstract

BackgroundSome people report a near-death experience (NDE) after a life-threatening crisis. We aimed to establish the cause of this experience and assess factors that affected its frequency, depth, and content.MethodsIn a prospective study, we included 344 consecutive cardiac patients who were successfully resuscitated after cardiac arrest in ten Dutch hospitals. We compared demographic, medical, pharmacological, and psychological data between patients who reported NDE and patients who did not (controls) after resuscitation. In a longitudinal study of life changes after NDE, we compared the groups 2 and 8 years later.Findings62 patients (18%) reported NDE, of whom 41 (12%) described a core experience. Occurrence of the experience was not associated with duration of cardiac arrest or unconsciousness, medication, or fear of death before cardiac arrest. Frequency of NDE was affected by how we defined NDE, the prospective nature of the research in older cardiac patients, age, surviving cardiac arrest in first myocardial infarction, more than one cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) during stay in hospital, previous NDE, and memory problems after prolonged CPR. Depth of the experience was affected by sex, surviving CPR outside hospital, and fear before cardiac arrest. Significantly more patients who had an NDE, especially a deep experience, died within 30 days of CPR (p<0.0001). The process of transformation after NDE took several years, and differed from those of patients who survived cardiac arrest without NDE.InterpretationWe do not know why so few cardiac patients report NDE after CPR, although age plays a part. With a purely physiological explanation such as cerebral anoxia for the experience, most patients who have been clinically dead should report one.