Something else to lose sleep over: Consciousness could last hours after 'death'

[MineralMan]

42. Yeah, I'm not so sure about that, really.

I contracted viral encephalitis in 1991. Apparently, according to those who worked on me, I died multiple times through cardiac arrest. I was revived each time and woke up three days later in the hospital in Palm Springs. At no time during those three days do I remember a damned thing at all. Nothing. I woke up wondering where I was and WTF was going on.

Everything simply went dark until I came out of the coma I was in.

Did I have deficits? That was my question, so I started testing myself in the hospital bed. Nobody was paying any attention to me most of the time so, I was trying to assess my mental capabilities.

I found one deficit. I no longer had any ability to remember the multiplication tables. Gone, completely. It took me about four hours to mentally use addition to rebuild those tables in my brain. Kept me busy for a few hours, but the deficit went away. Nothing else was lost.

But, there is absolutely nothing in my head from the time I had the first cardiac arrest until I woke up in the hospital three days later. Nothinng.

A couple of weeks later, I returned to my work and only missed one month of my magazine column.