A Journey Beyond: My Near-Death Experience During Surgery

"I want you to marry someone else," I told my husband. "Someone who will be a good wife to you and a great mother to our kids."

A sigh of relief. Finally, I said it to him.

He looked at me, struggling to hide his shock. He knows his wife loves drama and has seen me in play-act situations, but the idea of me wanting him to marry someone else? That was quite a surprise.

Surprising for him, but not for me. Why?

This conversation happened about two years ago, beginning with "if something happens to me." You might ask: Why would anything happen to me? Well, I was scheduled for my third C-section in a few days. After all, it's a life-threatening situation, and I wanted to prepare for any scenario.

Before placing this heavy rock in the middle of the living room, I called my long-time friend to let her know how she fits into this: "Listen, I've prepared a spiritual will, and before I tell everything to my husband, you're part of it: I'm appointing you to assist him, if necessary, in finding the right educational frameworks for my kids if something happens to me."

A Spiritual Will? I Had No Idea I Was Close to Losing My Life

My friend lowered her voice and said: "Wow, Galit, you're so dramatic. But you should know I once asked my husband the same thing, in case something happened to me. It's good to mention it to your husband in this talk."

"Excellent, good idea! I'll add that to my talk with him," I said and hung up the phone.

I thought to myself, in various insurances, the insured writes the names of the beneficiaries, those who will receive the money if they pass, so here too - it's important to talk about it while I'm still alive.

I had no idea I was very close to losing my life.

On Friday, January 17, 2020, I arrived at the English Hospital in Nazareth. This private hospital was where my C-section was scheduled for 11:00 AM that day. It was a unique private procedure available only at this hospital back then. So I went, full of anticipation.

We Didn't Know Hagit Had Another Role from Hashem

Since I was supposed to stay at the hospital over Shabbat, I hired the services of Hagit Millis, a birth support doula. Although my husband was with me in the operating room, the plan was for him to return home afterward to care for our older children, while Hagit would assist me during my hospital stay. I wanted a close helper, someone to sort things out for me, help me get out of bed, keep me company. Everything.

Neither of us knew that Hagit had another role given by Hashem in the experiences I underwent when my soul left my body during the surgery.

Time passed, and the surgery was delayed because of previous operations that day, so only in the afternoon was it my turn to enter the operating room.

My heart was pounding with excitement. My husband and I were in the waiting room: green clothes, the smell of disinfectants, beeping machines, caps, and masks (two months before the coronavirus era). The surgeon shook my husband's hand, and I was led on a bed into the operating room. Just recalling the experience excites me as I write these lines.

Everything was fine at first: surgical room jokes, excitement, pain, smiles, and here, our baby girl Yael was brought into the world. Hagit, the doula whose services I hired, was in the operating room for the experience. I didn't need her yet since my husband was with me and Sivan, the surgeon's fiancée, was already acting as a birth doula as part of the special private surgery service.

They Decide to Anesthetize Me Completely

During the surgery, I didn't stop talking, laughing, and joking — my way of handling stress and the once-in-a-lifetime excitement.

After verifying the baby's health, she was taken out for care, and the medical staff continued with me. What was supposed to be a half-hour procedure took 90 nerve-wracking minutes: turns out there's a cut needing stitching, but the doctor can't stop the bleeding. I saw concern in Sivan's green eyes concealed by a smile. She peeks through the green curtain separating us from the doctor and his assistants. She informs me they have decided to put me under full anesthesia.

I quickly understood this wasn't routine. After all, a C-section usually uses partial anesthesia, with general anesthesia only in emergencies.

From my experience with C-sections, the medical staff tends to use milder terms to describe a real situation, to calm themselves and me. Instead of saying: "We're entering an emergency because your life is in danger, and we're panicked," they told me: "We'll give you a shot instead of anesthesia." Sivan talks to me, her eyes smiling, but her voice tense with worry.

At this point, my husband and Hagit left the operating room. In fact, Shabbat would start in about two hours, and my husband needed to reach home to be with our older children.

Hagit returned to our room to heat the food on the plate, organize for Shabbat, and wait for me.

They injected me with a sedative. The jokes continued, and then came the moment I parted from this world for a few minutes.

I Forgot About the Surgery, My Newborn, My Husband

The operation room lamp is gigantic, a lighting fixture about a meter in diameter. The lamp was very dazzling, and at that stage, it simply disappeared, becoming a huge, infinitely bright white light. That's all I saw. An endless light. It was shaded with gold, and for some reason, in the bottom left corner, it was slightly red.

I forgot about the surgery. I forgot I had a newborn, and I forgot about my husband.

After initially being dazzled by that light, I felt a soul ascension. Literally. I felt myself rising towards the light. I've mentioned I didn't stop talking during the surgery. But these were the only moments where my ability to speak was taken away. Instead, the only word that rose in my mind was "death." From here on, everything I thought wasn't from conscious thinking in the regular world we live in. I wasn't activating my head. Thoughts flowed as if someone else was managing them.

Once I felt myself rising, I started to sense my soul, which had left the body, filling an immense cosmic space. The universe and I were one. I no longer felt a soul confined within a body. It's challenging to recreate that feeling today, but I remember that expansion well. The soul expanded in all directions.

A Few Moments Later, I Realized I Was Dead

It's important to note I didn't feel fear at any point during this experience. On the contrary, I felt supreme bliss and joy. A feeling of completing a life journey. I reached the end of my life! How fortunate I felt! I didn't control this feeling. And Hashem? During the soul's ascent, I felt so close to Him. I felt immensely loved and experienced a complete unity between us. Then, a few moments later, I realized I was dead. Suddenly, I remembered my husband and kids and expressed an unconscious wish. Again, the thoughts weren't intentional. Without words, I heard my internal thoughts: "I want to live."

Then, a shocking reel of a destructive force played before my closed eyes, and I descended back to Earth. My request was granted.

It took some time, and gradually I began to see blurry figures moving in the operating room.

Here, I felt anxious. I don't know why, but I looked for Sivan's green eyes amid the mask-covered figures. When I saw her, I said with a smile and emphasis: "I'm back!" Sivan smiled, not understanding where I returned from.

The surgery ended successfully. Later, the doctor and Sivan jokingly asked: "What horror movie did you make for us?"

From the conversation with them, I understood that at no point did my medical indicators suggest death. They weren't saving a life; they were simply stopping the bleeding and stitching the cut. Apparently, the brief moments I visited higher realms didn't yet affect my body's condition down here.

Still, it wasn't a regular surgery for them.

Saturday night, I called my husband and close friends to tell them about the special experience I had in the upper world. Everyone was astonished.

I was released from the hospital in good health.

As someone who is busy with women’s performances, songwriting, and faith coaching, I anticipated the experience would somehow manifest after returning to work. The recovery weeks were normal, and then came the coronavirus pandemic, consuming me at home with double duties and three young children.

Exactly a year passed. That day, Hagit revealed something thrilling. How did it happen?

I sat at the computer, without any idea for a promotional Facebook post about my business. Maybe about songwriting? Perhaps a personal prayer I composed? What about a special women's evening? I had no idea.

Then I remembered it was the 17th of Tevet. My daughter celebrated her first birthday, and indeed, I received my life as a gift exactly a year ago.

I wrote this post on Facebook.

"A year ago today:

1. I gave birth in a complicated surgery.
2. I was anesthetized.
3. I was in the next world.
4. I asked to return.
5. The medical staff had no idea my soul was wandering, yet they saved my life.
6. Here I am.

In the picture - this is about what I saw there.

Still contemplating what to do with this extraordinary experience."

The post received overwhelming responses from many women I didn't know, who were very curious about what I went through. Even a foundation dealing with experiences from the upper world during near-death events contacted me.

Who else read the post? Hagit Millis, the doula I hired to accompany me during my hospital stay.

That evening, I received a message from her: "You didn’t tell me you had a near-death experience during the birth."

She Fell Asleep Suddenly. What Did She Dream?

The first thing I thought was – me?! A near-death experience?! What a dramatic and explosive term. I simply traveled there and came back. In fact, this conversation helped me understand that this is indeed what occurs during a near-death experience.

Hagit and I talked into the night. I mistakenly thought I had told her right after the birth, but it turns out I hadn’t. It turns out that back at the hospital, Hagit dreamt a dream right as my soul ascended.

Hagit was asked to leave the operating room, and anyway, she needed to prepare for Shabbat and prepare the room for my return. She waited anxiously. She went to the reception in the maternity ward and asked about me. They kept telling her, again and again, they’d let her know the moment I was out. None of them knew what truly happened to me.

Hagit was anxious and worried. Why was I delayed? They had said the surgery was just half an hour! After she dressed for Shabbat, she sat on the bed in our room, and suddenly her head dropped – she fell asleep suddenly. She told me she wasn’t at all tired then. She just fell asleep suddenly. What did she dream? That I died!

Hagit awoke with a start, rushing to the operating room. She pounded on the doors. Frightened, she thought about how she would return to our city with just a baby and no mom?

After our conversation, I felt strengthened in understanding the experience I had.

I have a special mission in this world in this new chapter of my life.

I am happily married and have no intentions of finding another woman for my husband.

I am grateful to Hashem for granting me another chance to heal and be here in this wonderful world. May we all be granted true healing and a good sealing for the entire House of Israel.