A woman has described how she ‘died’ on two separate occasions, and even recalls watching medical staff work on her lifeless body before making the choice to return to it.
Barbara Bartolome has come closer to death than most people ever will in their lifetime, including one incident when she was just 18-months-old, during which she “stopped breathing and died” for a brief period amid a high fever. Despite her body turning “purple and lifeless”, her family recalled her “suddenly coming back to life”.
Although Barbara was merely a young child at the time, it was an experience that came back to haunt her at the age of 31, when her heart stopped during complications at hospital, where she was preparing for surgery on her back. Upon opening her eyes, she says she found herself floating above, near the hospital room ceiling, watching her body being worked on as medics fought desperately to revive her.
View 3 ImagesBarbara with son Scott and daughter Juli around the time of her second near death experience(Image: Jam Press/Barbara Bartolome)
Barbara, who lives in Santa Barbara, California, told creatorzine.com: “I was out of my body looking down at the whole scene.
“The panic I was feeling in my body was gone. I felt wrapped in a beautiful blanket of love and acceptance, and I felt absolutely wonderful. I looked down at what was happening below, the surgeon was calling ‘code blue’.
“I calmly said ‘if I’m up here and my body is down there, and he’s calling code blue, I think I just died’. Right when I said that, there was a feeling of a being that was right next to me, and the being felt like I had known him forever.
“It felt like it was God. I felt absolute acceptance and absolute love and comfort, when he was next to me, I was a pure being, a pure spirit.
“It was just incredible. I had been on the earth for 31 years at that time but I felt it was way beyond that.”
Barbara, now 69, was admitted to hospital back in December 1987 for a laminectomy discectomy – decompression surgeries designed to treat nerve pain in her back. Part of the preparation for the procedure involved a myogram, where iodine is injected into the spinal cord to check for damage.
View 3 ImagesBarbara and husband Victor(Image: Jam Press/Barbara Bartolome)
However, Barbara, who had welcomed her daughter Juli just four months earlier and also had a son, Scott, at home, claims an X-ray technician accidentally pressed a button that shifted the table she was lying on, causing the dye to seep into her brain.
She began to feel faint before losing consciousness, and came round to find herself looking down at the room below, where the orthopaedic surgeon, neurosurgeon, two X-ray technicians and a nurse were frantically working to save her life. Barbara recalls ‘talking’ to the being beside her, while doctors and nurses “panicked below” and carried out CPR.
However, deeply concerned about her young children, she knew she had no choice but to return to her body. She said: “I was saying I needed to go back, while I was watching everything down below. They had an oxygen mask on my face, and they were switching between that and chest compressions.”
As a medic attached a heart monitor, she witnessed herself flatline. She even recalls one surgeon saying “too much time has passed, she’s going to be brain dead”, before the other surgeon used his fist to pound on her chest.
Barbara said: “I watched my body while that happened, and watched the whole thing from above, and my body jerked. I didn’t go back into my body, but up on the ceiling, as I was looking down, the being spoke to me.”
In what she describes as a “beautiful voice”, Barbara recalls being asked what she would do if she returned to herself. ‘Flashes’ of bad memories crossed her mind, and she came to the realisation that she needed to make some changes, including ending her marriage and prioritising herself and her children.
She pleaded to be brought back to life. She said: “The second I said it, the surgeon did the second cardiac thump, and it restarted my heart.
“I opened my eyes and I was back in my body with the oxygen mask on my face. They were all astonished.”
Barbara recalls the medical team stabilising her, before she was able to speak and recount the events in detail. One of the surgeons “freaked out” and left the room, while the other wanted her to repeat the tale.
Barbara rested for the evening and underwent the planned surgery the following day. She recuperated in hospital for four days, though she says nobody would discuss her experience with her.
But this did nothing to shake her conviction in what she had witnessed. Having never experimented with drugs, barely consumed alcohol, and never experienced hallucinations previously – she was certain that what she had witnessed was genuine.
Barbara explained: “It was as real every time I thought about it, as it was when happening. Talking about it now, if I were to shut my eyes, I would see down where the table is, where the people were, I could see the whole room.”
With nobody able to accept her account, Barbara remained silent about it for 12 years. However, she honoured her promise to the being, dissolving her marriage and raising her son and daughter alone.
She wasn’t certain whether she’d ever discover love again, but chose to write down a list of qualities her perfect partner would possess – and ultimately went on to encounter precisely that man, her current husband Victor.
More than three decades later, he continues to be a steadfast supporter of everything she endured. And Barbara gradually confided in other people in her circle, too, including one of Juli’s friends’ mothers, who informed her it was termed a ‘near-death experience’ and revealed that others online had recounted comparable stories.
She now believes her near-death experience was ‘planted in her life’ to help her leave her marriage and “grow beyond it”. Barbara continued: “It helped change who I was in major ways, and helped me to understand much more than I’ve ever understood before.
“When you open the door to the other side, it’s amazing how they’ll come through for you in so many instances. I think that the other side is listening all the time.
“They’re here, and ready to help everybody. But a lot of people close their doors, and when they get an intuitive hint, they think it’s their intuitive hit, instead of a message from the other side helping them.
“I really wish everybody understood, it’s not someplace far away. They’re here and with us. I see in many ways, the other side was teaching me all along, and planting me in places where I could grow and could get to the point of talking about this without worries of anybody’s judgment or non-belief.
“I can talk to anybody about this – so that’s what I do every day.”
Barbara feels deeply compelled to share her story, encouraging others to embrace the guidance available from the ‘other side’, while working to normalise near-death experiences, describing it as her “life’s purpose”.
She continued: “I do not believe that we are judged by anyone after death, but instead we see a life review and we view our actions and connections with others, and we see both the positive and the negative ones. I feel that we are here to ‘grow our soul’, and our choices and experiences here do that
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“I believe that we reincarnate and return here many times, to experience alternate lives and life experiences. I don’t believe we go to heaven or hell, but instead we return home – where we originated from.
“We can call the being that was with me during my near-death experience God, or Buddha, or Creator, or any other name – he doesn’t care. But he does want for people to develop a close connection and relationship directly with him rather than with organized religion.
“His love for us is immense and he does orchestrate miracles, healing, and other amazing experiences in our lives. I have no fear of death and look forward to returning home at some future point, when I have experienced my soul’s growth and my life purpose has been fulfilled.”