Tom Tinney
Not so much a mystery, but a great book. I was in a motorcycle accident 17 years ago. Died on the table twice. An interesting story by itself.
Afterward, they had me in a chemically induced coma for 6 weeks in ICU. Unfortunately, I was sometimes lucid enough to pick up the "Real world". That wouldn't have been so bad, but I was not a good patient and required a baby sitter to keep me from tearing out feeder tubes and IV's. Those baby-sitters in the ICU apparently liked action flicks. What did that mean for me? Well, I grabbed just enough reality to spend 6 weeks fighting a Ninja Wesley snipes, avoiding assassins sent to kill me and escaping from a sinking ship where a evil rich person had trapped me....in my head. All very vivid and all very real to me at the time.
Once I became lucid and they reduced the inducement drugs, I was on the path to healing. But sometimes, when someone came into the room, my heart would take off and I would grab the nearest object to defend myself. My wife would ask me what was wrong and I would tell her the person was “Here to kill me!” and be deadly serious. I wasn’t crazy. See, the person was a nurse, tech or doctor, someone sent to draw blood for tests or physically test my broken parts. They did those tasks while I was in my Semi-comatose state, so I had seen their faces and integrated them into my “other memory” of events. So, when they poked me with a needle, in my Ninja waking-dream, they were trying to kill me. When they cinched down my arm to keep me from screwing up my broken collar bone, I saw a shark chewing my arm. As I came back to reality, those thoughts and experiences (however twisted by the drugs they were) became imbedded as memories, vs dreams. They were real to me, so the threat was real to me.
It took a week or two to stop breaking out a sweat and keep my heart from racing when people would come in that I “recognized”.
I was eventually released, and during physical therapy, I went back to visit the ICU crew and thank them for their work. I did have a discussion with them about my “Dream state/Coma” experience. They had never had someone tell them what was going on with the patient and they talked about seeing me stressing out without knowing why. Now they knew….and hopefully they watch a lot of painting with Bob Ross, and relaxing comedies, rather than action flicks while babysitting. I don’t have any Idea how it would have turned out if they had watched Spanish TV Novellas.
I still need to write a book about the experience because the “adventure” I went on while in the coma is still preserved as memories for me, like it all really happened.
Afterward, they had me in a chemically induced coma for 6 weeks in ICU. Unfortunately, I was sometimes lucid enough to pick up the "Real world". That wouldn't have been so bad, but I was not a good patient and required a baby sitter to keep me from tearing out feeder tubes and IV's. Those baby-sitters in the ICU apparently liked action flicks. What did that mean for me? Well, I grabbed just enough reality to spend 6 weeks fighting a Ninja Wesley snipes, avoiding assassins sent to kill me and escaping from a sinking ship where a evil rich person had trapped me....in my head. All very vivid and all very real to me at the time.
Once I became lucid and they reduced the inducement drugs, I was on the path to healing. But sometimes, when someone came into the room, my heart would take off and I would grab the nearest object to defend myself. My wife would ask me what was wrong and I would tell her the person was “Here to kill me!” and be deadly serious. I wasn’t crazy. See, the person was a nurse, tech or doctor, someone sent to draw blood for tests or physically test my broken parts. They did those tasks while I was in my Semi-comatose state, so I had seen their faces and integrated them into my “other memory” of events. So, when they poked me with a needle, in my Ninja waking-dream, they were trying to kill me. When they cinched down my arm to keep me from screwing up my broken collar bone, I saw a shark chewing my arm. As I came back to reality, those thoughts and experiences (however twisted by the drugs they were) became imbedded as memories, vs dreams. They were real to me, so the threat was real to me.
It took a week or two to stop breaking out a sweat and keep my heart from racing when people would come in that I “recognized”.
I was eventually released, and during physical therapy, I went back to visit the ICU crew and thank them for their work. I did have a discussion with them about my “Dream state/Coma” experience. They had never had someone tell them what was going on with the patient and they talked about seeing me stressing out without knowing why. Now they knew….and hopefully they watch a lot of painting with Bob Ross, and relaxing comedies, rather than action flicks while babysitting. I don’t have any Idea how it would have turned out if they had watched Spanish TV Novellas.
I still need to write a book about the experience because the “adventure” I went on while in the coma is still preserved as memories for me, like it all really happened.
More Answered Questions
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more