A former nurse who nearly died during heart surgery has opened up about how the experience transformed her understanding of life after death.
Candice Purchase, now an evidential medium, was just 30 years old when she underwent a patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure to repair a hole in her heart. The procedure came after years of serious health complications including a pulmonary embolism and multiple strokes. Purchase tells UNILAD that she had to remain awake during the operation, leaving her “shaking with fear” as she lay on the operating table.
“As the surgeon went to the main artery of my leg to feed the device up towards my heart, I was in another space in an instance,” she describes. “I was just being and I was surrounded by peace and love.”
Purchase told the outlet that she found herself in the presence of what she described as “the brightest, purest white light I had ever seen.” She recalled having no thoughts, fears, or worries during the experience. “I remember not thinking, not having any fears, thoughts, worries or stresses. I found myself sitting at the bottom of a big presence, and I believe this was my guide,” she recalls.
The experience was not merely visual. Purchase said she sensed a second presence and could physically feel what she described as the loose material of a robe between her fingers. “I sensed a second presence with him, that I was feeling the bottom of his robe,” she explains. She also described looking at herself as if she were a child, and feeling the hand of the presence moving toward the top of her head.
The moment ended abruptly when Purchase found herself back on the operating table with the doctor asking if she was okay. Nurses asked what she had seen and felt, but she said she “couldn’t speak” after what she had experienced. She kept the incident to herself for months, fearing that people would not believe her story.
The experience fundamentally altered Purchase’s beliefs about death. Where she once believed that passing meant being gone forever, she now holds a very different view. “It changed a lot about what I thought, and it brought me even closer to my faith,” she says.
Purchase now describes death as a state of perfect peace rather than loss. “When you pass away, you take nothing with you from the physical life. You are not angry, you’re not sad, you’re not holding on to anything. You’re in a perfect state of peace. And you feel so loved, you feel like you’re home,” she believes.
She also feels the timing of her experience carried significance beyond coincidence. “I was definitely nudged, I felt like there was a deeper meaning there,” she says of the events that led her to this point.
In the viral moment that has drawn fresh attention to her story, Purchase’s account of seeing pure white light and feeling divine presence during a medical procedure she was awake for has resonated with audiences interested in near-death experiences. The PFO closure procedure, which involves inserting a permanent device to plug an opening between the heart’s upper chambers, typically requires patients to remain conscious. Purchase’s description of being instantly transported from terror to peace, and her subsequent inability to speak about it immediately afterward, matches patterns described by others who have reported similar experiences during cardiac procedures.
Following her near-death experience, Purchase moved away from nursing and into energy healing, which eventually led her to pursue mediumship. She now works as an evidential medium, offering various types of readings to clients. The mother of two says she “no longer fears death” after what she experienced on the operating table.
Purchase’s story has also been featured on “The Other Side: NDE & Near Death Experiences” podcast, where she discussed what she says she was told while in the presence of what she understood to be God.