I am over eighty and have been relatively healthy throughout my life. In spite of smoking for over twenty years and doing very little exercise during that time. I also have drunk my share of alcohol.

My first surgery was when I was fifty. It was cataract surgery on my right eye. This was an outpatient surgery, and I was home before lunch. I was amazed at how bright and clear my vision was. Ten years later, I had the same surgery on my left eye. Since the surgery was done by two different providers I do not know if this done on purpose or what. The first implant had the focal point for distant vision. The second implant has the focal point for close vision. The only time I have to wear glasses is for close detail work. It is amazing how your brain can adjust for two different focal points.

My second event happened in 2018. I started having pain in the early evening on my right side below my rib cage. Finally, around 11pm my wife took me to the ER. The CAT scan showed an 11mm kidney stone in my right kidney and it got in a position where it attempted to travel down the tube to the bladder. The ER personnel said that was the largest kidney stone that they have ever seen. It was removed by going up from the basement and used a laser to break it up. I peed chocolate milk for 12 hours after the removal.

Finally on February 7, 2023, around 2:30 in the morning I woke up with a terrific Charlie Horse in my left calf. I massaged it trying to relieve the pain. Big Mistake! The pain decreased but about 30 minutes later I had difficulty breathing, woke Dee my wife and she called 911. The EMT’s took me to ER. The CAT scan showed a Pulmonary Saddle Embolism between my lungs. Otherwise, a gigantic blood clot. The speculation was that massaging the calf dislodged the clot and it migrated up to my chest.

They gave me three options. First, to attempt to use medication to remove the clot. Secondly, to go under anesthesia and enter through the groin with their instruments and remove the clot. Finally, to do the same procedure but the patient stays awake during the procedure. They said they have had the best luck when the patient stays awake and alert. That is the option I chose.

The most painful was when they cut the vein or artery for the entrance of the instruments. The other was just discomfort. After about 30 minutes I heard one of the assistants say, “Doctor his blood pressure is dropping.” I was starting to feel really bad, and I was at the point I was thinking this was my last breath. I blacked out. A period later I woke up and was starting to feel better. After about 45 minutes the surgeon was finished and told his aide to finish it.

The doctor started talking to me and asked how I was doing and that he got most of the clot but there were areas he couldn’t reach. In the conversation I asked. “Doctor, I heard an aide say my blood pressure was dropping”, how low did it go? There was a pause and he finally said, “Tom, you don’t want to know how low it went, and I am not going to tell you.” I still don’t know how low it dropped. He also stated, “Tom, I think we made the right decision for you to stay awake. I am afraid that if you went under anesthesia, I would have lost you.” That was an eye-opening comment to me. I then spent three days in ICU and then went home.

This was a near death experience, and I may have had a preview of time after death. During the time I blacked out until I woke up, I experienced something I have never experienced in my entire life and that was peace, total peace! I cannot express or explain what I was feeling but I am ready to feel it again. Was this a preview? Who Knows.

That was close to over a year and a half ago. I am doing well. I will never get back to myself before this event, but I am happy where I am.