Full Neurological Recovery From Escherichia coli Meningitis Associated With Near-Death Experience

Abstract

A 54-year-old otherwise healthy man presented with altered mental status. On admission, the patient was confused and agitated, with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 11, suggesting moderate brain injury. He was sedated, placed on a ventilator, and started on tobramycin and ceftazidime for presumed bacterial meningitis, but switched to ceftriaxone once cultures returned as Escherichia coli. During his 8-day hospitalization, his mental status fluctuated from confused to nonresponsive, with GCS scores between 6 and 11. Although E. coli meningitis has a high rate of neurological complications and death, this patient recovered completely without any deficits, and recalled an elaborate near-death experience that occurred during his coma. This case highlights the importance of studying near-death experiences occurring during compromised brain function to further our understanding of the brain and consciousness.

Commentary on After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond, by Bruce Greyson, MD

“…This exception is because the well-described progressive brainstorm of neurotransmitters instigated during cardiac-arrest (Dean et al, 2019;Li et al, 2015) and loss of oxygen to the brain-the convergent endpoint of most etiologies of death-does not readily apply to Alexander's case of coma due to encephalitis. This being said, the idea of Alexander's neocortex being uniquely devastated over-and-above heart attack-as offered in Greyson's scientific report on the case (Khanna et al, 2018)-could have disinhibitive effects in the brain, whereby disruptions to otherwise suppressing higher-order networks may lead to release of intrinsic neurochemicals-and so be precisely the reason for the NDE's production; in a separate article, I expand on this novel neural account of Alexander's case (Michael et al, under review-b). Also importantly, although Alexander's CT scans and blood results indicated virtually no chance of survival without significant brain damage, no EEG, nor any functional neuroimaging tool otherwise exploring activity instead of structure, was ever recorded-ironically because the medical team felt no clinical use would come of it, given the poor prognosis.…”

Persistence of Attitude Changes After Near-Death Experiences

“…First, they may be mistaken for psychopathological states, yet have profoundly different sequelae requiring different therapeutic approaches (Greyson, 1997(Greyson, , 2001, and they may provide comfort, dignity, and reassurance to people who are terminally ill or bereaved (Martens, 1994). Second, clarification of their mechanisms may enhance our understanding of consciousness and its relation to brain function (Khanna et al, 2018;Morse and Neppe, 1991); neuroimaging of near-death experiencers meditating on their NDEs have identified areas of marked hemodynamic and neuroelectric changes in specific brain regions (Beauregard et al, 2009).…”

Continuous EEG of memories of Near-death and mystical experiences: Preliminary research

“…[34][35][36][37][38][39] Similar to NDEs, some experiences occur during the terminal phase of illness and are called deathbed vision. 37,[40][41][42][43][44] Although these results cannot simply be correlated with human experiments, it suggests the brain's remaining activity may explain the NDE. 45,46 As mentioned earlier, we have found, from anecdotal observations, that occasionally, when teaching CP to students, they would relive their previous NDE experience during their CP.…”