Chelsea's NDE From Great Dane Attack

0:03 From the time that they pronounced me dead was a good 45 minutes. They cut my clothes and then they paddled my heart, my heart stopped and I could see people screaming and crying but I didn't realize that was actually my physical body because I was somewhere else. The only thing that I could feel if you could imagine absolute love and peace, there wasn't anything else to be felt. I was greeted by people I had known in the past. I'm back home again. Incredibly safe and felt at home. Welcome, welcome to Round Trip Death everybody. And we have a very special guest in her car today.

0:45 Thank you for pulling over so you're safe. This is Chelsea Elizabeth. How are you? I'm doing well, yes, avoiding the spring breakers who have launched to our beautiful Florida for the 60 degree windy weather today. If you're in Florida listening, sorry guys, it's not a beach day. Well, that doesn't sound all that bad to me right now being up in the mountains. It's a little bit colder than that, but enough for the weather before we jump into your near -death experience. And I'm going to give it a little tease here. It has something to do with a great big dog. It does. Great big dog. Before we jump in there, tell us who is Chelsea? I am a farm girl from Tennessee, originally. Know the dialect, did not leave, but you'll hear it come out quite often. Grew up, left home, college and... never really looked back, have been in biotech pharmaceutical cells, most of, well, all of my career for the most part, done some consulting here and there and most recently finished a manuscript which is in editing and I hope to be published in the near future. A lot of people that come on have a book out and I don't mind plugging it just a little bit, but the plug for you is It's in development and it's going to be awesome when it comes out and we don't even know the title yet, do we? I don't even know the title. The title has changed so many times. It's going to

2:16 be the last piece of the puzzle. I think once I actually sit down and read my own book again, decide what the best message is. It started out very different than what it ended when I handed it over to the editor. So it's been... an evolution of sorts that has been very rewarding for me, very healing in this journey, we'll call it. Yeah, very therapeutic, I imagine. Yes. Okay, so everybody in a few months be looking for Chelsea Elizabeth, the author. Yes. Okay. Yes. I want to get into it. You are a dog lover. Give us a little bit of background. What kind of dogs did you grow up with? So growing up, I was raised with golden retrievers. And in the backyard, we had beef cattle. And then along the way, I would pick up any stray dog, cat, squirrel, you name it. It came to the farm with me. And animals were always my happy place. Just when life kind of got you down, it's just go snuggle with your pup. Being single, you want to come home and you've got this tail wagging, somebody excited to see you. and rescuing, just giving any animal, even humans, even the chance to thrive. Once I got my first home, began rescuing, wanted big dogs. I'm a little person and so started with

3:48 Great Danes and fell in love with Abigail the first one and ever since have been adopting Great Danes. I currently have Amelia who is my seven -year -old. and she's a rescue. It was late July, early August. I adopted another Great Dane, a male. Had him for a couple of weeks and he snapped at me, you know, got my arm. I ignored the warning signs and kept him. And it was a week after that. It was a Sunday night, beautiful Sunday. August, hot, humid evening was approaching, probably five. He snapped. and came at me face on, took this side of my face forehead over off. I was able to roll over and he went to town on the back of my head. I don't know how I got out of the house. I remember knowing that I had to protect my neck and so I had one hand over the carotid artery and I remember looking up and seeing Amelia in the corner just I remember asking her for help. And in that moment, looking back, it crushes me that I asked her for help because she was helping me by not joining in, by not joining her pack. She had declared me as a pack and knew that she could not save me. I somehow made it

5:21 out of the house, looking back at the photos. was a struggle to get out of the house based on the glass sliders. And my neighbors found me. I remember the attack. I remember laying on my patio. I remember sitting in their living room. And sitting in their living room, I remember focusing on a light. In focusing on that light, everything was just bright, kind of an aura. and noise became white noise and pain didn't exist. Fear wasn't present. There were what felt like a very long amount of time that I felt like I was just kind of floating and everything okay.

6:11 It was just magical. It was excruciating pain to just peace and light and noise that was calming. I woke up in the ambulance. Now I know there were only three people in the ambulance, but to my right there was someone holding my hand. And I will never, ever forget it because to my left they were placing IV or whatever they were doing and I remember looking at that EMS and I asked her, I said, I'm dying, right? And I remember to my right going a squeeze and hearing it's okay, Chelsea. And I knew it was okay. The ride very uncomfortable, but I had a hand to hold. I didn't have an out -of -body experience.

7:05 I don't know what heaven looks like. I can't bring any messages back, but I know that heaven exists because in several moments of that trauma. there was peace and there was somebody that I could see holding my right hand in that ambulance. Any idea who that was? No. No, I actually went back to the EMS station and talked to them and asked them, are you sure? Because, you know, they brought two ambulance. I'm like, are you sure somebody from the other ambulance didn't ride? No. No, you only had one person back there. You know, that's protocol. So, you know, I was able to share my story with them. But a lot of things that happened, I had to fact check, because I forced myself to go back and look at the photos that the police in Animal Control made. I forced myself to go through and watch every video. And everything in my memory is incorrect. Incorrect.

8:10 I would have told you it was dark at night. That was the only light I could see. It wasn't until I watched the video that I realized it was broad daylight. I was at the hospital before it was dark, but in my mind, it was dark and all I had was that one light. When you say video, was this like a doorbell camera or what was it? Yes, it was doorbell cameras and cameras that are in the front and the back of the house. So every external exterior camera, it caught it. And so I saw... And I don't know how I survived. I think I know why it's becoming a little more clear, but I should not have survived. I did lose, you know, I lost my head. So a little wig if it falls off, my apologies, but my entire scalp, ears, forehead, neck, shoulder, back, off, gone, nothing.

9:12 The plastic surgeons sewed up what would have been five feet two inches. So five feet two inches just on shoulder up is what they sewed together as he wrote as a puzzle piece fitting and pulling skin just to close the head back up. And then I was sent to ICU. where they assumed I would catch infection. I had a clot in the right vertebral artery, which was very dangerous. I was on Heparin and around the clock watch. The records were very hard to read because in the moment you don't know how bad it is. And it wasn't for a long time that I realized how bad it was. Let's take a breath for a second. and explain a couple of things to the listeners. One is on this podcast, usually what we're doing is talking to people that have had a clinical kind of death, left their body, come back. We don't usually talk about... Near death in the term of oh, I almost got hit by a truck today, but I'm fine But yours was such a horrific thing that happened and you said you didn't have an out -of -body experience But it is awfully close or similar or something spiritual was going on when you talk about the light and this Being that was holding your hand

10:46 and we're gonna come back to a little bit more of those details the other thing I wanted to interject here was I've known some great Danes and they seem to be the most friendly big Lick your face to death wonderful dogs out there Has that also been your experience and what do you think happened with this particular one that day? That has always been my experience. Every single grade day, and I've had, count them eight. Just things that are pocket -paddle size, crawl up in your lap, lean on you, love you, lick you. Just follow you everywhere. I've never had to leash one of mine. They just, they want to touch you all the time. So they follow you everywhere you go. I have a son, he's 12 now, when he was an infant. I had two great tanks. He would roll all over them, play in the floor. He'd run himself until he fell over to take a nap. And they would be on either side guarding him. Abigail would sleep in front of his door. Yeah, they're just not aggressive animals at all. And I have to believe that with this particular one, he was abandoned and forced to survive. which Great Danes, the ones I've had, they're not the survivor type. They're very dependent. And so I think that he had to fight for his life in the wild.

12:18 And for whatever reason, he was triggered by the dogs in the backfield that day and felt like he had to do what was necessary to guard his space and attacking me. He had not been with me that long, a month. He had just a bad beginning. And like Amelia, she had a bad beginning. It took me a year to socialize her. She was scared of everything. A loud noise. She would run through the house, pooping, hiding in the closet. And so that they all come from a different background, just like humans. And what we have to do to survive, they have to do too. It wasn't that he wanted to attack me. It was that that was what he knew.

13:11 That was all he knew. I'm glad you cleared that up because I don't want people to think that Great Danes are bad, mean, aggressive dogs because in general they're not. Something with that one had some kind of a history. and it snapped. Oh yeah, now adopt another one. I will have to have another one. So that's not going to hold me back. I have no fear of dogs. My son loves to go to animal control and visit all the pups and play with them. My friend of mine got a brand new rescue. Let that dog right in my face. So there's no fear of the animal. It's understanding that that poor guy had a traumatic start. All right.

13:58 Let's talk about what you described as floating floating. Yeah, it was uh Interesting and it was I can't tell you how I made it out of the door and I'm not Positive that I opened the door because those sliders are quite difficult to open But I do remember being outside on the patio. So my brain skips between being inside and hearing teeth against my skull to laying outside. I didn't know what to do. I sat. And when I sat is when I just felt light, like I was just floating. And that's when there was the light. I remember standing up. And again, I don't feel my feet on the pavement, but I remember standing up.

14:49 It's just a light. feeling almost as if you're suspended in water. Somebody's turned the lights out and all you can see is the pole light right there in front of you. That's the closest thing I can compare it to. And the noise is just white noise. It's just noise, not scary, not harps playing, but just noise, just static. And there's nothing scary to look at. And that's what I remember. And I remember seeing the same thing when I was sitting in my neighbor's house in their living room, just focusing on that light and that noise.

15:30 I remember not really being able to hold my head up and just feeling like I was melting. You also used the word peace. When did you feel that? When I made it outside, when I remember waking up outside, it was peace. I have no memory or sensation of pain from the point that I was sitting outside until I woke up in the ambulance. No pain, no fear. So the emotions of peace and fear are very opposite, right? Most people would be so struck with fear at that point. That would be a normal human reaction, I would believe, wouldn't it? Yes, and I remember the point of fear and that level of Knowing you're dying is nothing that can be placed into the English language, any language in words. There's nothing more terrifying than knowing you're dying and feeling yourself dying and knowing that you didn't get to say goodbye and that this is it. This is it. And this was only about a year and a half ago. So I think you're still processing some of it. whether you left your body or not, something spiritual happened. And I wish you could think of more about what kind of whoever was holding your hand in the ambulance, because I'd love to drill down

17:00 on that, but you don't have any other memory, do you? You know, I've tried. I even tried hypnosis so that I could see her face. I recognize the voice. That's what's interesting is I know the voice. And I've told my therapist, I know the voice. I've got to know who it is. And I said, if I heard it again, I would recognize the voice. But you know it's female. I do. It's definitely a female. And what did she say exactly to you? You're not going to die. It's not time yet. It's going to be OK. It's going to hurt. It's going to be OK. We're here. I'm not leaving you. kept hearing over and over, I'm not leaving you, you're not dying. I'm not leaving you, you're not dying.

17:43 You've got more to do was one of the takeaways. You've got more to do. I'm like, how am I going to be able to do anything? I feel what's going on. By that time, you have the wherewithal to know that where you're going, you're not going to get to leave any time soon. That was a very hard reality. knowing that I don't know when I'm coming back home and not knowing I was angry because I'm like, I just want to go back there, back there. No, we can't go back there. You're not ready. You can't go back. You know, I was so angry for the longest time that I could not go back. And you'd look after an experience like that and you're in this place of peace and happiness and The world isn't so heavy on your shoulders, and you can't go back. You have to stay here.

18:42 That's the hardest thing. Dying isn't scary. Death is not scary. It's beautiful. It's so peaceful. Living is the scary part, and you want to go back to that light. You want to go and see, you want more of that light, you want more of that noise, you want more of that experience. Is that the end of the experience or is there something else that you remember? I remember being in the living room knowing that I had to guard my neck and I had to get the focus off of what was going on and have a reason to just fight. You think of any other reason to get back up, keep pushing and By that time, I had lost a lot of blood.

19:30 But I remember almost like a slideshow or a movie, a video of my childhood and me and my dad outside by the pool just as it was placed in. And I remember his swimsuit. I remember what the ground looked like. It was still red mud. There was no concrete. And I remember jumping in the water with him. And that's what death felt like. Just jumping in the water and being done and just that exhilaration flowing through your body. And I remember the same thing being at the beach with him and him letting me ride the waves as a little one and just feeling that experience. And I can tell you the color of his swimsuit, it was yellow.

20:22 And the other one was orange. I'm way too short, but I remember those childhood moments and being at home, laying on Daisy, our first dog, and playing with her little puppies. And that's where I went in that moment, and I just had to get back to them. I had to get back to that, but that place to me in that moment was that light. Because that's what I saw. I had to get back to those memories and to that happiness and to that peace. I didn't want to wake back up where I was. I didn't want to face what was coming.

21:10 I wanted to go back to that. And it was very hard. And that's where the anger came in, is why do I have to come back to this? And so that's been the... Obviously, the most emotional part for me is I can't go back there yet. But my childhood, beautiful memories that were just the time I had and the time I will have with my parents. But I had never before remembered any of that. I was far too young. When I fact checked with my mom, it was correct. I remembered it correctly, colors and all. And these are times from when you were a baby or a very young child? Yep, nine months, nine months roughly. Six, nine months.

22:01 How has all of this changed your life? You're a different person. I am. I am a very different person. Family's first. Work's second. Money, you really, when you're laying there, it doesn't matter. I have always been one that worked never. cared about taking a vacation. I was going to cash in on the vacation. Now I take the vacation. When I finally was well enough, well, prior, my parents came to see me after I was out of the hospital. I was in that angry phase of things. And it wasn't until they'd left that I realized how much I needed them. And I think the second they pulled out of my driveway, I... I packed my suitcase, put Amelia in the car, and we went home for what was going to be a week. It ended up being four months. And I just stayed. I was with my mom, my dad, my aunts, my uncles, my cousins. That was very healing for me. Just being around the people you love and not worrying about anything else. Not worrying about status quo's or... societal opinions or how much money's in the bank. Just spending the moments with the people you love and just having those hugs and those conversations. I would not change a single

23:31 day of that four months. I just wish I could have extended it even more. Priorities certainly shift when you wake up. What mattered before doesn't matter anymore. I don't have anybody to impress. I don't have any kind of legacy, anything to leave, other than every day I encounter an angel. That's one day they take the shovel out of my hand, and that's what I say. You know, God, if I've got to live here, put an angel in front of me that takes the shovel, because I want to dig my own grave. And He's done that. He's done that every day in the most unsuspecting places. somebody comes by and takes the shovel out of my hand. That's all we can do is take it day by day. That's beautiful. Last thing, any advice for someone that has just been going through a really difficult, really difficult something, whether it's a regular trial or something hugely physical as well as emotional? Feel. Feel.

24:35 If you're mad, be mad. If you're sad, cry. If you're hurt, Be hurt. Don't pretend you're something that you're not because that's what I did and it nearly killed me. Pretending I'm happy, pretending I'm well, pretending I'm okay when I wasn't. Live your truth. Hurt. Feel. Cry. Do it in public. Because until you feel, you don't know why you feel. You don't know what's behind it. There's so much emotion. For me, there was so much emotion that I didn't know what was behind it. There was more. I wasn't mad at the dog. I wasn't mad at anybody. I was just mad. When I finally was able to work the anger out, I was able to cry.

25:26 And I'm not a crier. The fact that I cried on this podcast is pretty remarkable. That's a huge hurdle that I jumped. I don't cry. And I've learned to cry. And I've learned to be sad. And I've learned to find the emotion that's real. That's the book. It took a turn because where I started wasn't where I ended up. The message changed completely as I understood myself. And the most difficult part to understand is that while I'm living, breathing, and seeing myself in a mirror, I've got to grieve my own death because the life I had before is gone. Those people that were there before, their life went on. While I was in the hospital, while I was in wound care, they kept living. And I can't pick back up six months later and expect everything to be the same. My life stopped. Theirs went on. And I've got to grieve the death of that life. And when you go through anything traumatic, you're not supposed to be the same. You're not supposed to come out the same on the other side. It's impossible.

26:49 You're different. Time does not heal those wounds. You can't sit there and wait for life to go back to the way it is. Time changes you. Time doesn't heal. It just changes you. And you have to embrace that. And if it's been five years, 15 years, 50 years ago, and you're still sad, you're still struggling, good. That was important to you. You should still be sad. You should still feel the love that was. We're not supposed to just turn off human emotion and move on like nothing happened. We're supposed to remember what was, embrace it, love it, feel what was, and make today better because of it. We're not supposed to leave it behind, close the book, and move on. And I'm so sick of people saying, just get over it. No, no, don't just get over it. That's not love. You don't just get over the love you have for yourself or for the loved one that you lost or the friends, the boyfriend, the dog.

28:01 I still cry now over my first Great Day Napgal. It's time to normalize pain. It's time to say it's okay to cry in public. It's okay to voice. It's okay. You're stronger. If you're not okay, then if you run around pretending you're okay, you can't do it. And you should be able to talk about it whenever, however you want to. And if nobody will listen to you, I will. I'll listen. I'll give your phone number out to everybody. I'm kidding. I would not do that. But Chelsea, you are a strong person and thank you so much for sharing all of this with us today. I hope that. I hope there's one person out there that just needs to know it's okay to be sad. It's okay to be sad. It is. We grow from those normal human emotions and we evolve. And I today am much more compassionate and empathetic to anyone and everyone that I encounter because you just don't know what kind of day they've had. We hear it all the time, but... Take that seriously.

29:17 You don't know what they're facing or what they have faced. So just be compassionate. Live with love. Thanks again for listening and sharing this podcast. Don't forget to hit the follow or subscribe button and sign up for our newsletter at roundtriptest .com. If you want to share your near -death experience, or if you have questions or comments about the show, send an email to eric at roundtripdeath .com. Until then, I wish you everything good that you're looking for in this life and the next.