A man who was clinically dead for ten minutes has shared his experience of what it felt like when he ‘came back to life’.
While it may not be a pleasant subject, there is a significant amount of curiosity about what happens in the afterlife.
Matthew Allick, 42, went through this after he began feeling unwell at the end of August 2023, experiencing shortness of breath and swollen feet.
Normally in good health, Matthew thought his symptoms were due to his body adapting to a new night shift schedule.
However, an ambulance was called when Matthew found himself unable to climb a single step at work.
“I remember I went to take one step and I thought, ‘I can’t climb these stairs,'” Matthew recalled.
“I said to my friend, ‘You need to call an ambulance’. At the time, I wasn’t in pain. But I knew something was wrong.”
At the hospital, a doctor asked Matthew to rate his pain on a scale from one to ten.
He said, “I told him that it had been a zero before but suddenly it was an 11 out of 10. He said that it couldn’t be an 11, and I said, ‘Now it’s a 13’. And then I dropped dead. I had no pulse, no heartbeat. Nothing.”
Matthew had suffered a cardiac arrest due to a pulmonary embolism.
Doctors used a defibrillator and performed CPR so vigorously that it caused internal bleeding. The actor and care line officer was considered dead for several minutes before medical staff were able to resuscitate him and placed him in a coma.
When Matthew regained consciousness, he was fully aware but had some memory issues. He was able to describe the sensation of waking up.
“I don’t remember anything from when I was dead,” he said.
“But what I do remember is coming out of the coma and it felt like I had been sleeping. Everything was peaceful. It felt like a peaceful sleep.”
Subsequent scans showed that his heart and lungs contained blood clots the size of a cricket ball, prompting urgent surgical intervention to remove them.
Doctors were amazed by the extent of Matthew’s recovery, and he later discovered how vital blood transfusions were in saving his life.
Matthew is now an advocate for the importance of blood donation, particularly within Black heritage communities.
Reflecting on his ordeal, Matthew said: “I’d say I’m 75 percent of what I used to be – I’ll never be completely back to normal as I’ll be on blood thinners for the rest of my life.
“But I’m just so grateful to everyone who supported me and visited me in the hospital every day to encourage me.
“My friends, my family, my kids, and my fiancée at the time all really showed up for me.
“At one point I remember doctors saying there were too many people in the room.
“It just really made me realise how lucky I am to be alive.”
An NHS Blood and Transplant spokesperson added: “Although the blood used to treat Matthew came from a range of donors of different ethnicities, the need for more Black heritage donors to come forward to provide ethnically matched blood is well established.”