A few years ago, Amanda van der Gulik, a Canadian social media star, had consented to go into a medically induced coma because of her ongoing health issues. Initially, she was experiencing symptoms of cold, for which she visited her doctor who suggested that nothing serious was going on and Amanda had the flu.
Trouble started when despite taking multiple dosages of antibiotics, Amanda’s health condition became worse and eventually she reached a state where she could not move at all. She was then rushed to her local hospital where she was told that both of her lungs were suffering from pneumonia and thus were in an inflamed state.
Besides displaying the common signs of pneumonia like severe difficulty to breathe, bouts of cough, chest pain, and high temperature, Amanda also displayed extremely low levels of oxygen. Her condition demanded her to be put into an ICU and eventually it was decided that the best for her was to go into a medically induced coma.
Amanda and her family were reassured that this coma was only a protective measure and will not last for more than a few days. The doctors said that once her body stabilizes, she will be brought back from the coma. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned and the three days that the doctors’ had promised turned into weeks.
While being in the medically induced coma, Amanda also developed ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) for which her lungs ceased to function without medical help. However, though it took longer, Amanda made it out of the coma successfully as her health got better.
While it was a relief that she had woken up, what happened next was not expected by anyone, not even the doctors. Amanda mentioned that she recalled everything that she thought while being in the coma and most of it was like brutal nightmares. She told the press, “I had the craziest dreams. I had the craziest scariest nightmares of my life, it was awful.”
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Amanda further added, “They call it ICU psychosis but it’s so real it’s almost more real than reality. Every experience in my life that meant something to me, every fear I’d ever had, every manipulation that had ever happened to me, they all got mixed together and became this horrible nightmare horror story.”
She also mentioned, “They’re stronger than normal regular life memories that I have and they were so clear they’re still clear, they have not gone away.” Amada said that after coming out of the coma and recalling these things made her feel like she had “lived a second life” and also mentioned that those awful memories still haunt her.
