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Dead three times (waking up on the morgue slab twice).

 

Imagine waking up and finding yourself on the slab in the morgue. Couldn't happen? Read on..

While the above scenario might sound frightening, for some people, it has been even more frightening. Imagine your body just going to sleep on your, while you are fully conscious. Your body vital signs reduce to almost nothing, and you are pronounced dead. All the time, you can hear what is going on, and you can hear that the attending medical staff have told your nearest and dearest that you are dead. What would that feel like?

There are a few people alive today that can answer that, as it has happened to them. These lucky (and I say lucky, because they did at least come round before any autopsy was started, or they were buried), suffer from a debilitating disease called cataplexy.

Cataplexy is a sudden attack of muscular weakness, often triggered by strong emotions. The range of muscular weakness can vary from the mild to the extreme, with the patient completely collapsing and appearing lifeless. This disorder not only affects humans, but can affect animals as well. Meet the nacoleptic dogs, who suffer boughts of cataplexy:

 

Cataplexy often affects those suffering from the sleep disorder, narcoplexy. People suffering from Narcoplexy find it very difficult to stay awake, and can even fall asleep while they are walking, writing, playing the panio etc.

The following video shows the video diary of one narcoleptic:

 

Patient Stories

Story 1 - Kristina Heeter suffers from Narcolepsy. She remembers problems starting early in her life (around puberty). In 4th grade, she remembers having problems with "florescent lighting, emotional responses like joy/sadness and nervousness, and the bath tub". Her parents even told her off for falling asleep in the bath. However, Kristina wasn't asleep, she just could not move her body, even though she was conscious and aware of what was going on around her.

Kristina is on medication for her narcolepsy, but admits "Without any medication I can hardly make it to the bathroom without having knee buckling Cataplexy." In fact, on a bad day, she could have about 100 cataplectic "attacks" a day.

Kristina grew up, and faced many trials, like college, driving (which could trigger mild attacks), getting married and having to convince her husband there was something wrong (since the doctors didn't really understand the condition). Today, she takes Xyrem, a pharmaceutical Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate (also known as the "date rape" drug). This drug has been responsible for getting many housebound Cataplexy sufferers, out and living a "normal" life again.

Today, Kristina has a new job, and her husband is now totally supportive and understanding. Kristina can't imagine what her life would be like today without Xyrem.

Read more about Kristina's story.

 

Story 2 - Christie was in her late 20s when she first remembers problems. She says: "I found myself falling asleep at work while doing the nightly paperwork, when I was sitting for extended periods of time, and while driving long distances".

Christie didn't think much of this, as she was working 60+ hours a week. As she says:

" it made perfectly good sense to be so tired. As the year went on, my "falling asleep" episodes continued to increase, and I began to also have Hypnagogic Hallucinations, Micro Sleep, and Automatic Behavior. I felt as though I had lost control of my life".

Christie's stories of her hallucinations are frightening. She often felt there was someone else in her houes, and they would hurt her children. Often, she could not distinguish between the dream state, and reality. She would answer the phone in her sleep, and hold a conversation with someone, and on waking, assume that she had that conversation.

Christie's doctor could find nothing wrong, until Christie gave her an ultimatum. Find out what is wrong, or lock her up.

Christie's doctor prescribed a Polysomnography and a Multiple Sleep Latency Test. The tests confirmed that Christie was a "textbook narcoleptic", and also had boughts of sleep apnea during the night. Her doctor prescribed drugs for narcolepsy and cataplexy (even though Christie said she did not suffer from this).

Three years after diagnosis, Christie had lost her job, was failing college, and was on the verge of losing her family.

Her cataplexy was starting to show. She remembers her first attack:

"My first cataplexy attack was a "classic" example of this definition. I found my cat on the table licking the butter and went to swat her down. She ran and I ran after her. The next thing I knew, I was face down on the floor; I had indeed lost ALL muscle control in my body due to anger. "

Christie desxcribes her condition today as:

"My cataplexy today is often frustrating and I often have continuous attacks. I call them my drunken stupor for that is the only way that I can explain them -- I actually appear to be drunk. These attacks will last up to 10 minutes at a time and it takes great concentration to snap back to the real world. Depending on my fatigue level, I will continue to have these attacks with small breaks between them until I lay down and take a nap."

Read more about Christie's story.

 

Story 3 - Pat is a 64 year old lady with narcolepsy, with over 40 years of narcolepsy treatments under her belt. She now gets Social Security Disability.

Pat was lucky to be diagnosed after suffering her symptoms for just 3 years. Back in those days, that was very quick, with patients often suffering for 10 or more years before a successful diagnosis. Having said that, Pat had been wrongly diagnosed with hypothyroidism.

Pat remembers times when she had attacks:

"I once awoke while floating on my back in a swimming pool. It was fortunate that I was not diving into the water instead. Now I wonder when I hear of a "good swimmer" who has drowned. .... I have gone to sleep talking on the phone, in youth choir at church, reading, nursing my baby, and often while watching TV. Once I went to sleep taking a "nice hot bath" and woke shivering in cold water"

Pat also had the hypnagogic hallucinations that we saw earlier with Christie. On one occasion she was so sure that some men had broken into the house that she phoned the police. The police had to force entry, only to find that all windows & doors were secure, and no intruders were found.

Read more about Pat's fascinating story

 


Waking up at the morgue

I first became interested in narcolepsy and cataplexy after watching a TV program. A woman named Allison Burchell who suffered narcolepsy/cataplexy had collapsed. Her son phoned for an ambulance, but when they arrived, they pronounced her dead. Her son protested and told them that she suffered from cataplexy, but the medical staff could find no vital signs, and reaffirmed she was dead. They told the ambulance to take her to the morgue.

What was frightening for the poor victim, was that she was fully conscious and heard all of this. Over there (Australia), the morgue was the deep freeze. Luckily she came round in time to surprise the medical staff, but it could have been a fatal mistake.

Altogether, Allison has been pronounced dead three times. Aged 21, Allison woke up on a mortuary slab and fifteen years later she again found herself again on a slab, in pitch darkness.

After one attack, she apparently sat up in the morgue, coughed and asked a somewhat terrified assistant: "Excuse me: can I go back to my ward please?"

Read more about the Woman who died three times.