stations wanting me to appear on more shows. The international issue of the Miami Herald put out a story on our study. From that I got responses from scientists and other individuals in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru. People were so pleased that we had done the study, and thought it was significant, expressing their interest, a lot of physicians and medical professionals just contacting me, being in support, and sharing their experiences or those of their patients or their personal loved ones.
VS: If somebody fairly new in nursing or cardiology, perhaps even a medical or nursing student, were leaning towards doing such a prospective study, what kind of advice would you give them?
JS: Not to give up! Because it’s so significant, and there’s something so important that’s being said by the patients, significant information that’s being given to humanity. And not just the message is important, but how we see that such a brief experience can so profoundly change a person’s life. How important it is to recognize and address these experiences in the management and care of patients.

Paul Bernstein is on the editorial team of Vital Signs. He is very grateful to Melissa Fellows for transcribing the original interview.