{"id":15344,"date":"2026-03-10T11:29:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/how-a-mysterious-hospital-visitor-led-her-to-believe-in-near-death-experiences\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T05:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:59:17","slug":"how-a-mysterious-hospital-visitor-led-her-to-believe-in-near-death-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/angels-and-miracles\/miracles\/gods-grace\/how-a-mysterious-hospital-visitor-led-her-to-believe-in-near-death-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Mysterious Hospital Visitor Led Her to Believe in Near-Death Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laurin Bellg has practiced medicine for more than 20 years, specializing in critical care. While working in intensive care units, she has encountered several patients who\u2019ve had near-death experiences (NDEs). Her book,\u00a0<\/em>Near Death in the ICU,\u00a0focuses on the importance of doctors listening to their patients\u2019 mysterious experiences. Her interest in the value of these stories started with two inexplicable experiences: that of one of her first patients\u2014and her own.<\/em><\/p>\n

The little girl looked familiar. She sat in the corner of my hospital room, staring out the window. She wasn\u2019t looking at me or saying anything. She seemed serene<\/a>. I found her presence uplifting after a harrowing week of being severely ill. But who was she? And what was she doing here in my hospital room?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been admitted to the hospital a few days before, diagnosed with septic shock from a urinary tract infection. I was in my mid-twenties and too focused on my job in viral research to pay attention to my symptoms. It didn\u2019t occur to me that I had an infection that moved to my kidneys until I became sick. Really sick. My husband, J.C., came home from work to find me barely conscious, with a fever of 105\u00b0. I don\u2019t even remember going to the hospital.<\/p>\n

The doctors immediately started me on antibiotics and monitored my condition closely. Those first few days, I was improving but still pretty out of it, drifting in and out. One afternoon, I was awake and lying on my side, facing the window. I was hooked up to an IV, the medicine slowly infusing into my veins, the heart monitor making steady beeps. J.C. sat nearby. That\u2019s when I noticed the little girl.<\/p>\n

She was about 10 years old. Her short red hair was parted on the side and pulled back with a plastic barrette. She wore a simple cotton dress, cardigan and white ankle socks with Mary Jane shoes. It was similar to outfits I\u2019d worn as a child, growing up in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is that?\u201d I asked my husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho?\u201d he asked, looking up from his magazine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girl in the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

J.C. glanced over, then looked concerned. \u201cThere\u2019s no one there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was I hallucinating? I could see her; he couldn\u2019t. It didn\u2019t make sense. I\u2019m a fairly logical person.\u00a0It\u2019s what prompted me to go into research, what made me want to be a doctor. I\u2019d just been accepted into medical school at the University of Tennessee. I\u2019d been waiting for the first semester to start when I got sick.<\/p>\n

When the doctors heard I was seeing things that weren\u2019t there, they performed various tests and mental health assessments on me. They double-checked my medication to make sure none of it caused hallucinations as a side effect. Nothing appeared to be wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not sure what could be causing her to see this,\u201d I heard them tell J.C.<\/p>\n

The little girl appeared a few more times during my stay at the hospital. Sometimes she\u2019d be sitting at the window. Sometimes she was standing nearby, looking at me, a subtle smile on her face. Even though I didn\u2019t understand what I was seeing, even though it should\u2019ve terrified me, it didn\u2019t. I let go of the need for a logical explanation.<\/p>\n

The little girl\u2019s presence actually became a source of comfort<\/a>. Because I was the only one who could see her, I felt as if she were there just for me. As if she\u2019d been sent to keep me calm and to reassure me in the midst of this scary illness. It got to the point that I would look for her. But why a little girl? And who or what had sent her? Whatever the answers, her presence there just made sense somehow.<\/p>\n

Judging by everyone else\u2019s reactions, though, I decided to keep her recurring visits to myself. When the doctors asked how I was doing, I didn\u2019t mention her. Still, it felt as if an important part of my healing process<\/a> was being ignored.<\/p>\n

After about a week, I was released from the hospital. J.C. and I stopped at a diner on the way home. While enjoying my first nonhospital meal in a while, I suddenly saw the girl. She sat curled up alone in the booth across from us, with that same soft smile on her face. I felt a familiar calmness wash over me and couldn\u2019t stop staring at her.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything okay?\u201d J.C. asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d I said, returning to my meal. We left the diner for home, and I never saw the girl again.<\/p>\n

Memories of my hospital stay and the little girl faded. For the next four years, medical school consumed me. It was grueling and intense. Countless hours of study. Sleepless nights with lots of coffee<\/a>. A packed class schedule, rigorous exams and shifts in busy hospital wards.<\/p>\n

Before I knew it, I\u2019d graduated and was walking into my first day of residency training in internal medicine. It would be my first time taking care of patients outside medical school. Though I was still working under supervision, as a resident I\u2019d be taking on a new level of responsibility. When patients were ill and afraid, when they needed attentive care and their families needed reassurance, I\u2019d be one of the first people they\u2019d see. The encounters were going to be emotional and sometimes messy. But I was excited to help heal people.<\/p>\n

One of my first patients was a friendly elderly man named Samuel, who came in with a serious abdominal condition. He needed surgery. As a resident, it was my job to prep him and get his consent. I explained the specifics of the procedure.\u00a0\u00a0Samuel, usually lively and talkative, grew suddenly quiet.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry, doc,\u201d he said. \u201cCan\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe I wasn\u2019t being clear enough. I explained again that the surgery was necessary to save his life. Samuel shook his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have this surgery, Samuel,\u201d I said, \u201cit\u2019s likely that you\u2019re going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

He took a deep breath. \u201cI\u2019ll never have surgery again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the last time I had surgery, I could see the whole thing. I saw them cut into me. I saw it all from up above my body, looking down. I won\u2019t do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never even heard of anything like that. I\u2019d seen on his chart that he\u2019d had abdominal surgery years before. From what I\u2019d read in the report, everything had gone fine. Had his anesthesia somehow worn off?<\/p>\n

\u201cWere you in pain?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cI was floating above my body. I couldn\u2019t tell them to stop. I won\u2019t do it again. I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tears rolled down his cheeks. I sat down with him and patted his arm, comforting him until he calmed down. I didn\u2019t know what to say. I didn\u2019t know how to help him. I felt useless. Why hadn\u2019t my years of medical training prepared me for something like this?<\/p>\n

I jumped at my pager going off.<\/p>\n

The surgical team was ready. When I told my supervising resident what Samuel had said, he advised me to write that Samuel had refused surgery<\/a>. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mention the other stuff,\u201d he said. That\u2019s when I learned it wasn\u2019t safe to talk about such things in medicine.<\/p>\n

Samuel remained resolute in his decision not to get the surgery. He died a few days later, his family by his side. Afterward, his wife came to speak to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know why he refused to have the surgery?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d I said. \u201cI am so sorry for your loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

She nodded. \u201cHave you ever heard of anything like that before? Like what happened to him?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d I admitted. \u201cBut just because I haven\u2019t heard of it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that you know, maybe\u2026\u201d she said. \u201cMaybe you can help someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

I pored over Samuel\u2019s medical charts, trying to understand what had happened. But nothing in the file or my medical books gave me any indication of what it could\u2019ve been.\u00a0I thought back to when Samuel had said no, how scared he had been. He\u2019d had a profound experience, something he couldn\u2019t fully describe. And there was no one to talk to about it. I couldn\u2019t imagine how isolating that felt.<\/p>\n

Except, in fact, I could. It all came flooding back. My hospitalization four years before. The little girl with the red hair and Mary Jane shoes. How she\u2019d been there to comfort me as I recovered. And how I\u2019d felt unable to share her repeated visits, isolated from those who could not see her.<\/p>\n

Maybe I couldn\u2019t explain what happened to Samuel with my medical knowledge. But if there\u2019s anything I learned from my own experience, it was that maybe I didn\u2019t need to. I\u2019d been steeped in an atmosphere of medical logic for so long that I\u2019d forgotten how to respond when faced with an unexplainable experience.<\/p>\n

After all, when I kept seeing that little girl, I had to keep her a secret, afraid of being deemed mentally unstable. And yet she\u2019d been such an important part of my recovery. I wondered if being able to discuss Samuel\u2019s experience with him in a more in-depth way would have changed the outcome for him. I decided that if I wanted my life\u2019s work to be helping people heal, I had to be open to their spiritual process as well.<\/p>\n

Over the past 20 years, I\u2019ve listened to many patients\u2019 stories. I\u2019ve seen how acknowledging their experience can be a profound part of helping them heal, not just physically and psychologically but emotionally and spiritually as well. It\u2019s an important part of good patient care. Sometimes my logical self still struggles to make sense of their experiences.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t have to understand it to acknowledge its importance. I still wonder about my own experience. Who was that little girl in my hospital room all those years ago? I may never know. But I\u2019m forever grateful<\/a> for her and the lesson she taught me: There\u2019s space for mystery in healing.<\/p>\n

Did you enjoy this story? Subscribe to<\/em>\u00a0Mysterious Ways<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laurin Bellg has practiced medicine for more than 20 years, specializing in critical care. While working in intensive care units, she has encountered several patients who\u2019ve had near-death experiences (NDEs). Her book,\u00a0Near Death in the ICU,\u00a0focuses on the importance of doctors listening to their patients\u2019 mysterious experiences. Her interest in the value of these stories […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[165,54,151,28],"ppma_author":[2104,884],"class_list":["post-15344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gods-grace","tag-life-after-death","tag-miracles","tag-mysterious-ways","tag-spiritual"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow a Mysterious Hospital Visitor Led Her to Believe in Near-Death Experiences - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a Mysterious Hospital Visitor Led Her to Believe in Near-Death Experiences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Laurin Bellg has practiced medicine for more than 20 years, specializing in critical care. 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