PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla.- I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase “our life flashes before our eyes.” Well, a new study suggests that might actually happen.
Tim Parks works as a cook at the Bean Depot in Port Charlotte. If you ask him about his dad, he can’t help but smile.
“My dad and I were best friends. It was just a very special relationship, Lisa. Just a very special relationship,” said Tim.
But it would come to an end the day his dad died from a brain aneurysm. The sudden death of his father took an emotional toll on Tim.
“It put me in a tailspin. It really did,” he said.
Fast forward several years later. Tim was hosting a football watch party at his home at the time in Georgia.
Tim explained, “Long story short, we had a backup.”
So Tim went outside in the cold to fix it. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned and he ended up having to grab the garden hose to clean himself off.
“Well in the meantime, I was freezing! We’re talking cold water, it was cold outside. I mean, it was cold,” said Tim.
In order to warm up, Tim took a REALLY hot shower. But the sudden extreme change in temperatures stopped his heart.
Tim explained, “I know the paramedics said that I was clinically dead when they arrived.”
During the 3 1/2 minutes before paramedics were able to revive Tim, something unexplainable happened.
“I have been to some very serene places and none of them have ever been as peaceful as that was,” said Tim. “It was a bright light. It was like a cloud, like a fog and it was suspended.”
And then his dad appeared.
Tim explained, “I saw him as clear as I’m looking at you right now. He put his hand up and said (head shaking) and he turned around and went back into the cloud.”
Potential new research is revealing what might happen to our brain during our final moments.
When scientists recorded the brainwaves of a dying man, he appeared to go through a sudden flash of memories seconds before and after his heart stopped beating, suggesting we may experience a flood of memories when we die.
“This is not that unusual. We capture those EEGs on a regular basis.”
Dr. Selim Benbadis is the director of the USF and Tampa General Hospital EEG laboratories and when asked about this particular study, he said this: “It’s an interesting speculation and I’m all for researching this further but at this point the EEG, which is a great test, and the test with which I make a living if you will, is not set up to tell us what people are thinking or dreaming.”
While Dr. Benbadis says while this particular case romanticizes the EEG readings of a dying man, he DOES say this when it comes to near-death experiences.
“There is more we don’t know than things we know. So we keep an open mind,” said Dr. Benbadis.
As for Tim, while science might not be able to explain what he experienced during those 3 1/2 minutes when he was clinically dead, he says he now knows what to expect when it IS his time.
“It gives me hope that I know when my day does come, that it’s not going to be anything but peaceful,” said Tim.
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