Because I am in a holding pattern until an editor or literary agent acquires my own memoir, I am reading several memoirs I wouldn't normally choose to read on my own. A writer hones his/her craft by reading in their genre and reading their competition. My dad was the person who brought the book Proof Of Life to my attention after realizing this doctor's experience mirrored mine at age four and also watching Dr. Alexander speak of his experience on a local television station. Essentially, Dr. Alexander contracts a rare form of bacterial meningitis originating from E. Coli bacteria. He awakes one morning to a tremendous headache and unbearable pain in his back. By mid-morning he has started having seizures and his wife calls 911. The doctors at the hospital are perplexed by his condition, but continue to conduct tests. It is determined after a lumbar puncture that he has bacterial meningitis. The originating bacteria is E. Coli; however, initially the doctors think he picked it up during a trip to Israel. That didn't turn out to be the case. And I never actually learned where he acquired the E. Coli bacteria. My theory is that he picked it up from the meat he ate at the barbecue he attended in his neighborhood the night before all the trauma begins. Dr. Alexander spends seven days in the ICU with no signs of life. He experiences what most people I know call a Near Death Experience whereby a person is in between this world and the great beyond or afterlife. His experiences are quite similar to many others that I've heard or read about with great light, seeing someone who has gone on before you, a lush landscape, and a general feeling that it is not the person's time to enter the great beyond as well as a feeling of unconditional love. Most people having this kind of experience also relate that there is no fear of going on to the great beyond. I have never heard of anyone having a near death experience while having contracted meningitis; it's usually when a person has a cardiac arrest or the brain goes without oxygen for more that four minutes.
I will say that Dr. Alexander goes to great lengths to communicate that his is the only known recorded case whereby a person does not die given the type of illness he has. He doesn't appear to suffer any residual damage after the experience either. Well, guess what?! Never say yours is the only case of its kind. Why? Because whether recorded or not, there is usually somebody somewhere that has experienced what you have. When I was four years of age I contracted bacterial meningitis from a preschool I attended while my parents worked. Another girl in the same preschool also came down with the same form of bacterial meningitis. My dad said he knew something was seriously wrong with me when I walked into a wall at home, fell, and my eyes rolled to the back of my head. So I was in the hospital for 37 days and specialist among specialist was brought in to try and help heal me. And this is back in 1973, a whole lot earlier than when Dr. Alexander was diagnosed, so there was even less known about how to successfully treat bacterial meningitis. The other girl from my preschool who had contracted the same form of meningitis died. I survived, but doctors warned my parents I could have residual side effects like going cross-eyed or suffering developmental disabilities. Everything was fine up until I turned 17 years of age. I never went to a preschool program again. At age seventeen, I was diagnosed with Meniere's disease and its development was attributed to damage I suffered during my bout of bacterial meningitis. At age sixteen, I developed Uveitis, a serious eye inflammation that later led to glaucoma at age 32. The Uveitis was also attributed to damage I suffered during my fight with bacterial meningitis. I have to say that I don't remember any near death experience; it freaked the hell out of my parents, especially when the other girl from the preschool died. My dad has always said that it wasn't my time to go and there's something I am meant to do here. Hopefully it is to get my own book published and become a successful author who can help people through her own weird, wildly unusual experiences.
And yeah, I believe in near death experiences even though I haven't experienced one. There are so many common characteristics among all the people who have experienced one and also, I've seen my dad be within a pinch of death and come back completely healed. Let's hope I get to tell my story one day.
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