Dying to Wake Up

It's amazing how your perspective changes when an out-of-the-ordinary event happens to you.  That's the gist of Rajiv Parti, M.D.'s new book Dying to Wake Up (#638) about his Near Death Experience.  At the top of his profession as Chief Anesthesiologist at a prestigious California cardiac hospital he had money, a mansion, a healthy family and lots and lots of "toys".  But it was never enough.  After seemingly routine surgery on his wrist, he finds himself cascading into a series of complications, further surgical corrections and addiction to pain medications until at last, he has an out-of-body experience on the operating table during a desperate attempt to save his life.  Dr. Parti recounts his story of what eventually leads to a profound change in his own life, and those of many around him.

When he was the first doctor a patient waking from anesthesia encountered, many of them tried to tell him of experiences that they had while being operated on; of seeing deceased friends and relatives, a bright light, a tunnel, or even watching their own bodies lying on the table while they hovered above. Prior to his own Near Death Experience, Dr. Parti's reaction had always been to get away from that patient as soon as possible, and never go near them again.  He thought it was simply the affect of the anesthesia, and had no interest in listening to wild tales when there was the next patient to see.  It's different when it happens to you, though.  Many of his colleagues had that same reaction when he tried to tell them about what happened to him.  Not surprisingly, the nurses he talked to in the Recovery Room and ICUs were much more receptive, and shared with him their encounters with patients who described similar events.

What makes Dr. Parti's story more interesting to me is how itt effected his life after he recovered.  He is no longer practicing anesthesiology, but is doing his best to learn a different approach to healing and maintaining health through a mind/body connection, to change abusive practises in his own family and to pay back those who paved the way for him.  Whether or not you believe in this sort of thing yourself, it obviously can have a strong affect on those who do.  Worth a thoughtful perusal.