Imagine that you had a premonition that you would die at a certain moment in the near future. That’s exactly what happened to Stephanie when Arnold became pregnant with her second child. After finding out she had placenta previa (meaning the placenta is growing above the cervix), she began experiencing intense visions of dying during her childbirth. Ta. During her pregnancy, doctors told her there was nothing to worry about, but during an emergency C-section in May 2013, Stephanie lay there for 37 seconds. With the help of her regression therapist, she was able to gain a deeper understanding of what happened to her and begin her healing process. This harrowing experience is the subject of her newly published memoir. 37 seconds: Divine help revealed to be dying..
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The moment you realize something is wrong
Until week 20, my second pregnancy was perfect. I had no problems and didn’t feel nauseous. This is what I thought. This is easy. But at an ultrasound 20 weeks later, I was diagnosed with placenta previa, which means the placenta is growing on top of the cervix. The doctor said it wasn’t a big deal, but I didn’t have a good feeling about it. There was something that resonated in my heart that it wasn’t going to end like this. The doctor explained to me what placenta previa is, a condition in which the placenta partially or completely blocks the uterus and prevents childbirth, and then had to leave the room to take a call. As soon as he left, I felt a wave wash over me.
When I got home from my doctor’s appointment, I looked it up on the internet and learned that placenta previa can turn into a mass accreta. Accreta means that the placenta has stuck deep into the uterus, possibly requiring a hysterectomy. What happens is that there is too much blood for doctors to separate the placenta from the uterus. This can lead to bleeding and, in the worst case scenario, death. When I read that, I had the same visceral reaction I had when I met her husband (I knew he was going to be my husband the moment we met). But this time I said, “This is going to happen to me.”I am about to Already knew I was going to die.
Morbid visions began to appear with great force.
I was taking my daughter to school in New York City and walking across the park. There was a fountain, but it was turned off because it was February. I passed a fountain and suddenly I had a vision of the fountain turning from water to blood. Blood was leaking everywhere. My hands got cold and I lost my balance. Luckily, her daughter was in a stroller. I told myself to shake it off.
“I am about to Already knew I was going to die. ”
But the next day, as I was walking through the bakery section of the grocery store to buy ingredients for the challah bread I make every Friday night, I suddenly had a vision of me being buried and dirt being thrown into my coffin. , and her husband saying a prayer. This was happening to me multiple times a day. I was feeling it in my fingers and toes, but it was too much to ignore. You know when you have a dream that you can’t get out of your head and it feels like there’s some kind of weight on it? That’s what it felt like.
I’ve always had a keen intuition. I think everyone has it, but we tend to ignore it. For example, when I was young, I hugged my uncle, knowing it was the last time I would see him. Two days later he died. Once, his heart ached and he asked his father, “Have you talked to grandma lately?” That was exactly when she had a heart attack. I don’t know why she said grandma or why she felt pain. I used to write it off as a coincidence, but after everything that’s happened to me, I’ll never doubt it again.
no one believed what I said
After my 20 week ultrasound, I spoke to my doctor and consulted with a specialist. If a stranger asked me how my pregnancy was going, I would tell them I was dying. At this point, her husband Jonathan thought I was crazy. No one listened to me. I even started writing and sending farewell letters to people close to me.
I met with a gynecologic oncologist who treats reproductive cancers. He told me he would do an MRI and if there were adhesions, he could schedule a hysterectomy to coincide with delivery. An MRI scan came back negative for adhesions, and my doctor and husband said I should feel better. In fact, I felt even worse. At least if you had something to point out, you could come up with some kind of plan of action. I was able to schedule a hysterectomy. We were able to save lives.
“I started writing and sending farewell letters to people close to me.”
I also consulted the anesthesiologist and she said she had never heard a patient speak like this before. Patients were looking for experts like this to protect themselves and find out what the problem was. She flagged it in my file, completely unbeknownst to me (meaning there would be an extra blood monitor and crash cart in the room when I gave birth). She also had intuition.
The day I’ve been dreading has finally arrived
I ended up needing an emergency caesarean section. I was making breakfast for her daughter and she bled all over the floor. I drove myself to the hospital, which wasn’t the wisest move. But I had many premonitions, and dying in a car accident was not one of them. At the time, I was splitting my time between Chicago and New York City. I was in Chicago and Jonathan was in New York. I texted him that I was going to the operating room. “No matter what happens, I just want you to know that you made me the happiest woman in the world. And please teach your children who I am. Who they were and how much love I have for them.” Then I kissed my daughter a million times, but the last memory of her sent me into hysterics. I tried to calm myself down because I didn’t want it to be me.
On the way to the operating room, I told the doctor that I thought something was wrong. I knew the baby was okay, but something was wrong with me. I told her that she needed general anesthesia. She said I was just nervous because Jonathan wasn’t there. It was a last ditch effort to get someone to listen. The next thing I knew, I woke up from my coma six days later.
My premonition came true: I died
I ended up giving birth to my son, Jacob, and the placenta was perfectly normal, but then I went into cardiac arrest and lay there dead for 37 seconds. Within seconds, doctors realized what was happening: an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE). It’s a very rare occurrence, 1 in 40,000. Amniotic cells enter the mother’s bloodstream and those who are allergic to them can go into anaphylactic shock and most often die. It is completely unpreventable, completely unpredictable, and usually fatal. In the first stage of AFE, a person goes into cardiac arrest, their lungs collapse, and it is like Armageddon. I’m lucky to be able to bounce back.
“I went into cardiac arrest, laid down and was dead for 37 seconds.”
Next, the second stage of AFE begins. Because the body is unable to clot the blood, it begins to bleed and bleeds from everywhere. Your body normally has 20 units of blood. I was given 60 units of blood products, including red blood cells and platelets, just for the doctors to keep on top of. My husband finally arrived at the hospital and I was in the intensive care unit. Seven hours later, she was still bleeding, so doctors decided she needed a hysterectomy. Now everything I said started to mean something to Jonathan. They also did a pathology test on my uterus and sure enough, adhesions had started to form. Although an MRI scan taken early in the pregnancy was negative for the adhesions, doctors discovered that the adhesions actually started forming later in the pregnancy. The placenta actually left a hole in the uterus through which amniotic cells entered the bloodstream.
I was in a medically induced coma for six days and when I came to, I had no idea what had happened. My belly was still swollen so she asked Jonathan if he was still pregnant. When she told me he had given birth six days ago, I burst into tears. I wasn’t looking at my child. I was glad he was okay and wanted to see his daughter, but it was too much to bear. I had to undergo kidney dialysis for several weeks and had multiple surgeries in addition to a hysterectomy.
How I started healing
I was discharged from the hospital about a month later and although physically I was recovering, mentally I was a complete mess. I ended up seeking the help of a regression therapist who hypnotized me and brought me back to that traumatic moment. In fact, I relived and watched everything that happened in the operating room. He was intubated, dead, and had no heartbeat. The first crash cart didn’t work, but the second crash cart did. My own doctor did not deliver my son. Residents delivered him.
I video recorded all my sessions with my therapist and showed them to my doctor. I thought maybe I was just remembering a certain episode. Grey’s Anatomy. Perhaps this was stored as a memory of something I had seen somewhere before. But it was all happening. They told me they didn’t know how they knew that. Hearing is one of the last things people lose when they die, but while your eyes are taped shut and you’re intubated, it’s hard to see what’s really going on and hear what’s going on around you. My doctor didn’t have a medical explanation for me to know. that.
That’s when I started thinking about writing a book. 37 seconds: Divine help revealed to be dying.. Everything that happened to me is well documented, and if anyone has any doubts, they can ask countless people, Facebook posts, date-stamped letters I’ve sent, and regression therapy. videotapes can be traced back. session.
“I was in a medically induced coma for six days and when I woke up I didn’t know what had happened.”
It took me a while to understand this as my own story. I was able to communicate it in the third person for a while, but it was very traumatic at first. And the more people I talked to about it, and I still get very emotional about it, the more I brought it back to my friends and family and the moments when I tapped into my intuition. I realized that I could share with more people. It may not be on the same scale, but there are still times in their lives when there was a premonition. I always tell people, “If you feel something, say something.” What’s the worst that can happen? Are you wrong? I wish I was wrong.
I now joke with my husband. He says he’ll never doubt my intuition again, but it’s a precarious situation for him. I would tell him something like, “The car is going to hit me, I need to go this way.” Or when I say it’s my turn to walk the dog, I might say, “I’m dead.” When he asks if I’m going to use that excuse from now on, I’m like, “Yes, absolutely.” To his credit, he came to every doctor’s appointment. To his credit, when everything I thought was going to happen came true, he supported me, even if he didn’t understand it. I did.
I’m glad to be on the other side of this. I still have the scars and everything to live for, but I wear them with more pride than I did six months or eight months ago. This is because through this experience I realized how precious life is.
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Stephanie Arnold is the author of 37 seconds: Divine help revealed at the time of death. She is an Emmy-nominated and Telly Award-winning television producer who spent many years working in local news and directing and producing various programs before shifting her focus to telling her own stories. She lives in Chicago with her husband and her children.
