Leo A.

I was about to connect a tri-phase board and when I was finishing the task, the boards exploded in my face. My hands were on the board causing the electricity to course through me. I experienced very high temperatures for a few seconds and a voltaic arc was produced. For reasons unknown, the short was not caused by me. Perhaps the receptacle or the fissure was carbonised? I don’t know. My face and hands were burnt and my cotton shirt was on fire. At temperatures approaching that of plasma, I was lying on the floor screaming, ‘Why?’ I had not done anything incorrectly.

The emergency services came and took me to the burns unit at the state hospital. I remember the questions about awareness, did I Iose consciousness? No, Did you electrocute yourself? No. After they put something on me, I fainted. So they intubated me immediately, as my respiratory channels had been burned. I was in an induced coma for approximately two weeks, during which I experienced unforgettable experiences but not traumatic for me. It seemed that at a certain point my lungs had stopped working.

I felt like I had died. I travelled along a black, square tunnel, with images of my relatives who had passed on. I saw them on both sides of the tunnel. In the center, all my life was shown to me in sequence. I saw some tools and old things made of steel like old cars. All the images were in black and white. All the while, I was aware I was shouting, ‘I don’t want to die! I DON’T want to die! I DON’T want to die! I have two small girls, and I DON’T want to die! I DON’T want to die!’ I said that there wasn’t a God because no God would take me from my family. I arrived at the end of the tunnel and a diffuse white light shone. Suddenly, I went back through the sequence. I quickly came back and arrived at the beginning.

I woke up in a bed, in a very old hospital and some boys were massaging my back and my chest. I looked to the right of my head, where there was seated a boy who caressed my head slowly. He was a very beautiful chestnut brown-haired boy, with green eyes, transmitting so much peace and love. I heard the voices of the doctors saying, ‘Live, Live!!’

This was a tremendous experience. I spent 21 days in the hospital, with 3rd degree and 2nd degree burns. I came back to life from death. I clung on to this marvellous life, to be alive, the strong dynamic of life, an existence which is tremendously grandiose. Above all I learned to love your body as it is, to love every cell, and every atom, of our organism. My wounds healed, I carried on living with a much greater faith than before, thanks to God.