Near-death experience garners international interest

Jamie Morton
A Masterton fitness instructor's miraculous recovery from a near-fatal fall has attracted the attention of one of the world's biggest newspapers The New York Times.
John Edmonds, amazingly revived after his heart stopped beating for 25 minutes after a collapse in November, was approached by the newspaper this week to share his story with its millions of readers.
"I received the email and thought it was spam at first. I was quite surprised, although I don't know too much about the newspaper. But I suppose that the New York Times is bigger than the Wairarapa Times-Age," he said.
"I said, yeah I'd be happy to, but there are parts about the whole experience that are quite personal to me. It had an enormous effect on how I look at life now. It's still hard to talk about because it was such a moving experience."
He was unsure whether he would fly to the US for the interview, or if they would send a reporter here.
In the same week, an interview was also requested by the publishing company of Jack Canfield, the US co-author of the popular series of inspirational books Chicken Soup for the Soul.
"They asked if I would like to do an interview on my story for the very reason that I'd died for a period of time. I didn't know what to say & I asked if I could have a day to think about it."
He was earlier contacted by US neuropsychiatrist Mona Lisa Schulz, who hosts a radio show and penned the spiritual book Awakening Intuition.
The 46-year-old, who is still recovering and has lost much of his memory from last year, said he has been "overwhelmed" by the amount of worldwide attention his near-death experience has attracted and can only surmise it snowballed from a February Times-Age article.
Many correspondents had also escaped death one person's heart had stopped for 10 minutes but few could compare with his return from the brink.
Mr Edmonds said he owes his life to the two women who first came to his aid after he collapsed, and the two paramedics who worked frantically to resuscitate him by using CPR and a defibrillator.
In another dimension to the phenomenon, one of the paramedics told him in his 25 years of delivering CPR, he had been his only success.
After giving off a slight heartbeat, he was scrambled to Wairarapa Hospital, where at one point doctors rated his chances of survival as little as 1 in 5.
He was put into a coma, and in ice to stop his brain swelling, before going to Wellington just two days later. "When I came out of the coma, it took me a week before I was able to communicate, understand and remember."
A low-voltage defibrillator has also been implanted in his chest, and transmits his daily heart-rate reading to a satellite and back to Wellington Hospital.
The road to recovery has been slow, but has given him ample time to read, get out on his bike, go for swims, answer emails and catch up with friends.
"I never asked for so much publicity, but if it's all happened for a reason, I'd like to get out and help other people, empower them to improve their health, and to be more in touch with their spiritual side."