On July 21, 2023, at 0600 I went into my local hospital for a fairly routine surgery. I was having an ablation to correct atrial fibrillation I was experiencing. I checked in and was sitting in waiting area with my wife and mother. We were making plans for the weekend since I was supposed to be going home by 1700 after recovering from anesthesia. The nurse called my name, and I kissed my wife and hugged my mother goodbye and told them I would see them in a few hours. With this my adventure started.
The anesthesiologist came in and explained what she would be using and that one of the side effects of this medication is death. I replied that if that happened, I would be fine since I had made peace with myself and my God. ” To be absent from the body is to be present with Jesus.” (2 Corinthians 5:8). I said, and the anesthesiologist said, “let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, you are going to sleep now.” With those words I head to surgery.
The following was reported to me by my surgeon. I entered the operating room, and the ablation began. The surgeon entered through the saphenous vein, (big vein in your leg) and fed a catheter to my heart. They do an inspection of my coronary arteries and note I have zero plaque. Sixty-year-old fat guy with no plaque in his coronary arteries? After checking my arteries, the surgeon begins to identify the cells that are causing the fibrillation in my heart. As they ready to begin the electroshock of those rogue cells my heart just stops. A little more background on the team performing my procedure.
My primary surgeon and his assistant who is also a surgeon are joined by a third MD for a rare visit, this surgeon is an expert in heart failure and arrythmias, (weird heart beats). So, they begin trying to bring me back. Now my heart had been in afib for a few months. It is the opinion of the surgeon that my heart muscle was, “tired and when the anesthesia hit it just stopped.” for the next sixteen minutes they battle to get a rhythm. Repeated shocks along with CPR finally get a weak heartbeat. For sixteen more minutes it is touch and go, I am lifeless with a very weak heartbeat. To recap, I was totally dead for sixteen minutes, and lifeless for sixteen more.
Eighteen hours later I regain consciousness, I am in a different hospital and can barely move any of my extremities. I am intubated. (respirator) My MD explains to me that I was, “a very lucky man, if that extra surgeon with the heart failure specialty had not been present, you would have definitely died.” He also informs me that the repeated cardioversion has shocked me back into sinus rhythm. I have an, “ecmo,” (extracorporeal membrane) machine attached to my inferior vena cava. (big vein that feeds your heart) This acts like and extra kidney and lung to take the pressure off those systems. I also am sporting a tiny pump in my right ventricle to help push and circulate blood. My heart is spewing blood out of all its valves, and I am as weak as kitten. Spewing blood out of my valves is called and “ejection fraction.” It is the amount of blood pushed out of your heart with each heartbeat. Normal is 50-60%, mine is 25% with the extra pump. I’m on five liters of oxygen to keep me alive because my circulatory system is not up to snuff. To put it mildly, I am in the deep end of the pool.
Creatinine is basically a measure of the waste products in your blood. A normal measure of this is under two parts per million. Before the surgery I was at 2.3 which sucks but isn’t abnormal since my blood pressure was all over the map due to afib. Now it is 4 and rising. My kidneys are in trouble due to the death process and just plain crappy circulation. My heartbeat is 110 bpm or so but stable. This is the only good thing about my body I can find other than just being alive. As days go by it continues to rise. Reaching. “Dangerous levels.” When it reaches 7, they want to do dialysis. I tell them I would rather be dead than have dialysis, I also know what being dead is. Under no circumstances awake, asleep, unconscious do they have my permission to do this. My kidney doctor Dr Ahmed is a wonderful, kind man, he reminds me of everyone’s grandpa. I imagine him on the weekend in a lazy boy with his dog and grandchildren all taking a nap. I tell him this and he laughs and says, “that’s not far from the truth.” He says, ” I can respect your choice, I will do all I can to help you.” I tell him, “I will be healed.” He says, ” I hope so.
On Friday July 28, 2023, my creatinine peaks at 8.2, Doctor Ahmed and I talk, I tell him, “Something has changed, I can feel it.” He replies, ” let us hope so, we will know more by Monday.” My wife and I pray for me to be healed. Then, Monday comes, and Doctor Ahmed come in and says, “Well your creatinine is now 7.8, I guess something really did change.” He advises me it may be months before I am in normal limits, God has other plans. When I am discharged on August 11, 2023, my creatinine is 4.8.
Just to be clear, being intubated really sucks. While I was in between worlds I was apparently working really hard at pulling it out, so I am restrained. I let my nurse know I want the restraints removed and I won’t pull out the tube but that I want that out also. It takes a couple hours, but it finally happens. I am resting in bed and feel like crap.
So, people are curious what I saw while I was dead. To be clear for eighteen hours I was at or very near to death. My nurse told me, “I think I saw you die four times last night, but you kept coming back.” So, this was not a quick trip. I saw the multiverse and felt myself moving through it. To be clear I am a fairly devote Christian. I however do not think that a multiverse or any one of a number of strange phenomena make Jesus any less the Christ. When I woke up, I had a feeling, ” I was in the wrong place.” Months later I learn it is a better place. Things now are just better.
I also saw the Trinity; it was a three-dimensional shape that took me some time visualize it and, a few weeks to understand it. God finally showed me what it was, ” a three-dimensional star of David.” I think, “wow that is so cool.” I am listening to a show two months later and a physicist says, “science has determined the shape of all the building blocks for everything in the universe is a three-dimensional Star of David.” It is important you realize I did not know this until God revealed it to me by having me watch this show. Truth comes to those who believe.
As you can see on this page, I am a Believer. So, I began searching in scripture for what happened. As I began to recuperate, I had many doctor visits. I am currently seeing three doctors, two are heart doctors one is a kidney doctor. I am extremely grateful to these men and women and offer praise to the King for them. Their reports on my healing have added belief to a believer.
I listen to the Bible more than read it, I have forty-minute commute one way five days a week. I listen during my commute or listen the Bible or to worship. Some days I ride in silence and just listen. During one of these rides home I was told to listen to Romans, so I do. While listening to The Passion Translation I get to Romans Six. This chapter is really resonating with me. Then at Romans 6:11 I hear this, “11, So let it be the same way with you! Since you are now joined with him, you must continually view yourselves as dead and unresponsive to sin’s appeal while living daily for God’s pleasure in union with Jesus, the Anointed One. ” Other versions have, “Reckon the old man dead.” God speaks to me and says, “you have lived this.” I ask why? He responds with these verses in Hebrews.
Moving On to Deeper Truths, Hebrews 6
1Now is the time for us to progress beyond the basic message of Christ and advance into perfection. The foundation has already been laid for us to build upon: turning away from our dead works to embrace faith in God, 2teaching about different baptisms, impartation by the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3So with God’s enablement we will move on to deeper truths.
But the verse that impacted me most was this one. “16-17 Now a person’s last will and testament can only take effect after one has been proven to have died; otherwise, the will cannot be in force while the person who made it is still alive.” God revealed to me I was now a clean slate. My past was gone, it died when I died, understand this is not a metaphor, by every measure I was dead. Then He revealed what He did.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. He did not fix my heart he replaced it.
Here’s proof, fifteen days after leaving the hospital I was back to work. I had to get a release to go back to work, my doctor says, “this is remarkable, most people take months to recover. Don’t do too much but you can return to work.”
Thirty days after leaving the hospital I have labs drawn and go to see Dr Ahmed. He reads my labs and says, “your healing is quite remarkable, your creatinine is 2.2 on these week-old labs.” My guess is you are under 2.0 now. I have not seen this very often if ever in my experience.” See me again in thirty days. Thirty days later new labs and my creatinine is 1.2. Dr Ahmed says, ” You just don’t see this, slightly above half the normal range. your kidney function is exceptional by any standard. How have you done it?” “Prayers of the saints, prayers for myself.” I reply. “Well keep it up, it’s working.” He sets my next appointment for a year later. Yay Jesus.
Now here’s where things get interesting. Thirty days after leaving the hospital I do go the cardiologist that performed my attempted surgery. He reads my labs and vital signs and shakes his head and says, ” You are one for the books Fritz, you just don’t see this. I will order an echo cardiogram and we will see your ejection fraction is and, I will see you in a month.” I get the echo done and go see the doctor….. “I cannot explain this.” He says. A normal healthy echo is 50-60%, remember, mine was 25%. “Your ejection fraction is 65%, what are you doing? This is nothing short of miraculous.” I reply, “exactly, prayers from a lot of people, as well as myself.” He tells me not only are we not going to do my original surgery, “any time soon.” He also tells me, “If you keep this up, in six months, we will start eliminating mediations. See you in six months.” As of 11/15/2023 I am cutting down my high blood pressure medication because my blood pressure is getting too low. Stay tuned, they will all be gone sooner than he thinks.
Some say God is not real, not only is He real, but He also loves you.” All the crap in the world today does not diminish our relationship with Him. I have gone one of the ultimate adventures and, I would not be here, or I would not be in this condition if He had not intervened.
Behold I Saw 