Returning From the Dead to Take in the Post

I died on Saturday April 20th 2024. When I return home, I wonder what I will find. And what I will be grateful others did not find.

Author in intensive care — getting better (although the figures on the screen aren’t great), but thinking about the post. Author’s own photograph.

Fewer than 1 in 10 people survive an “out of hospital” cardiac arrest.

Around 7 to 8% of people in whom resuscitation is attempted survive to hospital discharge.

People who are found in Pulseless Electronic Activity (PEA) or asystole (flatline) have the lowest chance of survival. (Source)

I died on Saturday night. Out of hospital — I was at the theatre, which is very definitely out of hospital — I was found both PEA/asystole with an eventual “down time” (lovely terms, don’t you think?) of 16 minutes.

Now, obviously, I bucked the statistics.

I’m writing this.

Or am right now proving something about the afterlife you hadn’t expected to find today on Medium.

No, no, no, I bucked the statistics, and I achieved ROSC (Return of Spontaneous Circulation) — go, me!

So, now I have to deal with the idea of discharge.

Going back home.

Facing the post.