Did a patients ghost return to thank me?

Ok so a little background. I work in the EMS field on an ambulance. I have been on for nearly 3 years.

So one night around 8 pm my partner and I were dispatched for an Ill person. We rspond as usual and found a 74 y/o man who looked terrible. He was sweating profusely even though it was around 70 degrees in the house.
So we go through our assessment and this guys blood pressure is in the tank, his pulse is rapid and irregular and his oxygenation is in the high 80s. We run an EKG of his heart and it comes up as an abnormal finding. At this point my partner and I initiated treatment as per protocol. The whole time we are doing this the man keeps begging us not to let him die before he sees his family one last time. We try to reassure him and get moving because he needed a hospital. So we get him on the gurney and start moving to the ambulance.

Right before we get to the ambulance I look back and notice him going limp. I try to rouse him by calling out to him but get no response. We check our monitor and confirm what we already knew. He was in cardiac/ respiratory arrest.

We jump into action starting compressions and dropping a tube then using a BVM to breathe for him. My partner gets an IV line and we start giving medication. We then run lights and sirens to the hospital unload and finally get a heartbeat and breathing back before transferring him to hospital staff. Shortly after the transfer the mans family arrived.

As we usually do we finished our paperwork get our equipment ready a d head back out to run other calls. We went about our shift and that call kind of got pushed to the back of my mind.

A few hours later we were dropping off another patient who was being kind of difficult so I had to stay and deal with them. After turning the second patient over I was in the hallway stripping the gurney when I see the first patient from earlier standing in the hallway he looked directly at me smiled and waved. I was busy with my equipment and looked down as he waved but when I looked up he was gone. So I finished what I was doing went out loaded my gurney.

Then it hit me. Patients who code like that arent usually getting up and walking around hours afterward. So I went in and glanced in the room to see a completely different patient occupying the room. So I walked over to the charge nurse asking about the patients outcome only to be told that he had kind of come around after we dropped him off and his family had gotten there to sit with him but about a half hour later he had gone into cardiac arrest again and had passed on.

Now I know this nurse well and he is not a jokester but still I asked him if he was serious and he assured me he was even presenting his notepad with the time of death.

Now I am neither a skeptic or believer I am kind of on the fence. But I know what I saw that night. So I would like your thoughts. Was I just overly tired? Was it my imagination? Or did the spirit of the man just want to thank me for allowing him his last wish of seeing and being able to say bye to his family?

I think the man wanted to thank you for allowing him to see his family. There are many stories similar to yours.

a reply to: Night Star

I've heard of other instances like that. But never expected it to happen to me.

originally posted by: Jrock272
a reply to: Night Star

I've heard of other instances like that. But never expected it to happen to me.

You have been blessed.

Now you know with absolute clarity that there is life after death.

Fear not, for death is only a transition.

Click me for more

P

All I will say is, yes I think he did "visit" you and you should only feel comforted and honored by his presence. It sounds like you truly care for people. Good job Sir.
I my world (opinion/experience) there are so many things we can't logically explain, with our limited perception, that we just have to sit back and wonder.

a reply to: Jrock272


Beautiful story! You did a great job and he was thanking you!

a reply to: Jrock272

Whether what you saw was real or not, you are truly in a blessed profession that lets you help others at crucial time!

I have experienced something similar with my uncle who passed away unexpectedly about 15 years ago. I was distraught, for months I could barely do anything without breaking out in tears. My uncle was just an awesome human being. Anyway. One night we had family and friends over, braai (barbecue) outside, people in and out of the hot tub... I was still moping around about my uncle, while everybody else was seemingly having a good time. I sat at the kitchen counter thinking about how I wish he was here. I look up and he's standing outside the lounge window, hands crossed under his belly, no shirt on and wearing those baggy shorts - uncle Mike's favourite getup. To say the least I looked like I'd seen a ghost. I stared for no more than 5 seconds, looked away and when I looked back he was gone

After that day I did start feeling better, dealing with the loss and moving on, so to speak. His memory is still very much alive.

I do believe there is something there, beyond our physical senses. How this all works is anybody's guess, in my opinion.

I believe you saw what you saw. For whatever reason, maybe that old gentleman thought you needed that. A thank you

I don't get it then. Why this one soul?

Why not every soul who passes and wants to say goodbye? The ones who die alone, or with regret. The ones who die suddenly and should surely know the pain and suffering left for their loved ones. The ones who had hearts as big as mountains.

I don't buy it...

Perhaps you saw one of his relatives who had asked about those who did their best, waving thank you.

When we die, we're not there any more. What makes us, US, is that lump of stuff in a skull. Damage it, we change.. and there is no more damaging thing, than brain death.

a reply to: Jrock272

No. A patient's ghost did not return to thank you.

a reply to: Jrock272

Was I just overly tired? Was it my imagination? Or did the spirit of the man just want to thank me for allowing him his last wish of seeing and being able to say bye to his family?

fatigue is when I see things that I can if I choose to just explain away as fatigue.

I can just ease my mind with fatigue explanation, however, more often than not it lingers and keeps me questioning especially because I "hallucinate" more so than not when I am fatigued which is quite often being a nightshift worker and not sleeping very well fro many years now.

I believe our brains work a little harder when we are exhausted whether to cause hallucinations or for us to see into another dimension where the dead might walk around in.



an experience like you describe is no hallucination, it has positivity and I do believe the guy was saying thanks like you ask in your title.

But what are beliefs these days......

a reply to: gallop

I don't get it then. Why this one soul? Why not every soul who passes and wants to say goodbye? The ones who die alone, or with regret. The ones who die suddenly and should surely know the pain and suffering left for their loved ones. The ones who had hearts as big as mountains. I don't buy it...

It sounds like the old mans last wish was given to him by this paramedic

that's is where it differs from the things you mention,

But its all just belief,
I want to believe it was the old guy saying thanks to the paramedic due to my beliefs about it being a positive thing in a way,

1. the old man asked to be given a little more time knowing he was dying so he could see his family one last time, its sounds like that wish granted.

2. Or due to fatigue it could have simply been a hallucination

or like you said

3. a relative, brother or cousin the same age that looked like him.

the last 2 are based on logic where as the first being a want to fulfill one belief system.

a reply to: Jimjolnir
That's intriguing. This reality is nothing near to what we believe it to be...
My friend went to his wife's uncle's funeral and when he got back in his house he sat down at the table and began looking at his recent newspaper. He caught something out of the corner of his eye and when he looked up, the uncle was outside his window motioning with his hand for my friend to come out...

High strangeness is afoot.

I often wonder about this, but then I think about all the millions of people who die every year wishing they could just say one more thing to someone and are seemingly able to do so. Why is one able to do so and not another. Case in point...my mother.

I arrived at the hospice facility she'd been transferred to, just 4 days after living on her own and complaining of a slight "cold". In four days she went from the hospital to hospice. I hadn't been there sooner because the hospital prognosis was just an "overnight stay" for a touch of pneumonia. Pneumonia quickly progressed to kidney failure, and kidney failure to congestive heart failure. This, all in the course of one night into the next morning. The staff said she told them she wasn't going to die until she saw all of her children. I got there as fast as I could. (it was 1,300 miles away).

When I got there, Mom was resting peacefully (it seamed), but unresponsive. My sister who had arrived just hours before said she had been responsive and talking somewhat about 3 hours earlier. We stayed with Mom much of the night with no change. We left for a few hours to get some rest and returned. (This next part is horrible). When we arrived Mom started to get seemingly panic stricken, groaning and howling loudly. She was clutching the sheets and thrashing about. At first they thought she was struggling to breath, but her oxygen checked good. She knew we were there. She was struggling to say something, but she couldn't wake up or snap out of it enough to say it. It was absolutely horrible to watch, and it went on for hours and hours. Just this uncontrollable fit. They had her drugged into the ozone, but it didn't relent.

At 7:30pm on Christmas Eve Mom passed away. Mom was the most determined woman you ever met. If she said she was going to do something then by golly she was going to do it, no matter what. If there was a way, she would find it, and she wouldn't quit until she did. It's just who she was.

If there was ever a person who would come back in the afterlife, I would think it would be her.

To date, and to the best of my knowledge, she's never returned to tell us what she so desperately tried to that day.

P.S. I have a pretty good idea of what it was she wanted to say, but short of seeing or hearing it, I'll never know for sure.

a reply to: Jrock272

Then it hit me. Patients who code like that arent usually getting up and walking around hours afterward. So I went in and glanced in the room to see a completely different patient occupying the room. So I walked over to the charge nurse asking about the patients outcome only to be told that he had kind of come around after we dropped him off and his family had gotten there to sit with him but about a half hour later he had gone into cardiac arrest again and had passed on.

Very moving passage in an otherwise deflating-at-best event. Two things I can think of, first is you both no doubt did your best and it was not for nothing because that extra bit of time he was coherent I am sure meant the world to his family and to him

The second is that you seem like a reasonable, rational, intelligent and most importantly credible individual. In this case, you know what you saw and although it is only natural to second guess yourself, it is OK to trust your own senses and instincts. By all accounts, you caught a glimpse of what remains here after we die. Now whether that is temporary, or even just to stick around long enough to see his family through their loss (both are speculative points on my part) it is special all the same.

I believe you when you describe what you saw and know that seeing things like this can turn some folks' World upside down but take solace in knowing what you do helps people, and even though it was this man's time to go I choose to believe he wanted to thank you for giving him that very special chance that so few people get

Cheers to you Jrock272

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: Jrock272

No. A patient's ghost did not return to thank you.

Don't you mean in your opinion a patient's ghost didn't return to thank him?

How do you explain the encounter? Your statement sounds like the excuses we tell ourselves when something like this happens to avoid having to confront a version of reality outside our comfort zone

This is a highly credible witness who is used to professional detachment and handling critical incidents. I wouldn't discount his experience so easily, just my 2c

originally posted by: gallop
I don't get it then. Why this one soul? Why not every soul who passes and wants to say goodbye? The ones who die alone, or with regret. The ones who die suddenly and should surely know the pain and suffering left for their loved ones. The ones who had hearts as big as mountains.

Why not? What do you have to "get"? Why would "everyone" want to say good bye? I wouldn't. I'd be out of there in a heartbeat. Everyone is not going to react the same. And for the record, it's not just "one soul." This happens all the time. Just as another example, when my aunt died she came to my mother in a vision and said, "I just thought I would say good bye."

But my mother was open to the possibility. You are not. As an empiricist you believe, just as fervently as a Christian believes in Jesus, that the physical is all there is. You somehow have come to believe that consciousness is physical. You think the radio announcer is resident in the radio and all you have to do is take apart the radio in the right way and you will find him.

Go ahead and believe what you want, but don't go telling other people they are wrong when you haven't even studied the issue. You'll find out soon enough, when it's your turn to die. See you then!

a reply to: Jrock272
Awesome experience you had. Having lived with ghost for years, I have seen some as foggy wisp like Casper, while looking right at others making sounds and not being able to see them at all.

So to me the question becomes:

How come some can be seen as whole while others can only be seen as transparent?

Was he whole (thick) because he just recently passed over? Do ghost become transparent over time?

a reply to: pheonix358

I've always believed in life after death but was never sure if people could appear after death now on Korean sure. Thanks for the comment.

a reply to: WalkInSilence

Thank you. I enjoy what I do not to get a front row seat to people's pain and suffering but to try to make a difference.