A woman who was revived after her heart stopped for 24 minutes has shared a powerful account of her experience, describing an overwhelming feeling of peace.
Lauren Canaday suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at home. Her husband immediately called 911 and began performing CPR. Emergency medical technicians worked for 24 minutes to successfully resuscitate her. Following the event, she experienced a seizure that lasted over 30 minutes and spent nine days in the ICU.
Despite the prolonged period without a heartbeat, medical professionals declared her "cognitively intact” with no visible brain damage on her MRI scans. Her EEG also returned to normal.
When asked on Reddit if she could recall anything from the time she was clinically deceased, Lauren explained that she was in a coma for two days and woke up disoriented and intubated. She experienced significant memory loss, with no recollection of the week before the incident or most of her time in the ICU, and only hazy memories of the preceding month.
However, she did retain one powerful sensation. "I remember only a feeling of extreme peace that I honestly seriously miss,” she wrote, noting that this serene feeling lingered for weeks after she woke up.
The recovery process brought its own challenges. Lauren described grappling with intense guilt, confusion, and grief over the consequences of her survival. "My emotional state was exceptionally poor for a while. I would not have gotten through it without my husband’s support,” she shared.
To aid her recovery, she took a break from work, attended weekly therapy sessions, and joined support groups. She also started a newsletter, finding that connecting with subscribers through email helped her process the life-altering event.
