My Near-Death Experience:
I looked around. I was surrounded by bright lights everywhere. I felt an extraordinary feeling of peace, comfort, and bliss.
Looking down, I saw myself swerving on my motorcycle to avoid the car. It was coming straight at me, and I couldn’t avoid it. There was a head-on collision, and I wouldn’t survive.
The car smashed into me, and suddenly here I was.
Images and memories from my life flashed before my eyes.
Where am I? Somewhere? Everywhere? Nowhere. It was all the same. Everything was interconnected.
My sprit had left my body and encountered an extraordinary existence.
Never-ending streams of light were everywhere, and orbs of light were floating all around. I had never seen this before, but I wasn’t scared. It was wonderful and very peaceful. Images of my life appeared right in front of me. I watched, remembered, and I understood. Everything that had happened in my life began to make sense.
Not just the accident, but also from the time when I was a child. It all was part of the plan for me for something bigger. Everything that had happened had prepared me for this day. It was all part of the same puzzle.
My body lay in a deep coma in the Neuro-Trauma Intensive Care Unit (NT-ICU) at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
Yet my near-death experience had taken my spirit to a place that was not restricted to the usual human boundaries of space and time.
Two weeks passed.
Then it finally ended. Now I get it, I thought. I opened my eyes, and I was in the NT-ICU.
My girlfriend, Sherry, was standing at the bedside. She looked ecstatic and told me with great excitement that I was alive.
I had been in a deep coma for two weeks, and for the next two months I continued to drift in and out of a comatose state as I lay in the NT-ICU.
It took a Herculean effort for me to learn strategies to cope with the Traumatic Brain Injury I had sustained.
Technology and assistive devices, such as my iPhone, my lap-top computer, speech-to-text software and Google became like a second brain to help me store and retrieve memories.
High Tech. Strategy:
A Ubiquitous Computing system has been developed to provide assistance to Brain Injury Survivors.
Ubiquitous Computing is a term associated with the Internet of Things (IoT) and involves embedding microprocessors into everyday objects to create smart products that can interact with each other. Ubiquitous computing is a computer network technology that keeps everything connected and constantly available to everyone, and everywhere.
“A great example of a ubiquitous computing system is an autonomous vehicle that recognizes its authorized passenger via smartphone vicinity, docks and charges itself when required and handles the emergency response, toll, and fast-food payments efficiently by interfacing with the infrastructure.” (C., BasuMallick, July, 2022).
The Ubiquitous Computing system uses cell phones and QR codes to help a Survivor remember various tasks. The QR codes are created and quickly readable by a cell phone and they contain a personalized set of instructions outlining how to perform a specific task. (e.g. how to use an appliance or how to make breakfast).
Different areas in a Survivor’s home can be tagged with QR Codes which can be scanned with a cell phone.
The cell phone reads the QR code and displays a set of instructions, which are presented as pictures, text or by voice and help the Survivor accomplish some task.
When needed, relatives or caregivers can create new QR Codes and print them for their immediate use in the Survivor’s home.
This is a fantastic, high-tech. strategy that can help a Brain Injury Survivor remember how to perform simple routines.
My near-death experience showed me that everything was interconnected, as is the case with Ubiquitous computing.
Read my second award winning novel, “Vendeka’s Creed” where I tell the story about a Brain Injury Survivor who uses a Ubiquitous Computing system to help him survive in his high tech. world. “Vendeka’s Creed” is a high interest fiction, fantasy novel that takes a very unique look at how our highly technical world might cope with brain injuries in the future.
Thanks for reading my thoughts and I encourage you to develop and use various strategies that will help you cope.
“Always Believe” and remain open to all the possibilities in today’s world.
Rethink, Redo, Rewired
References:
What is Ubiquitous Computing ? (C., BasuMallick, (July, 2022)
How ubiquitous computing can help people with acquired brain injury in their rehabilitation process