David House

I haven't told many people about the experience I had in 1995.

I was the editor of Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times. The short of this story is that I suffered a heart attack one afternoon. I didn't know what was going on, only that I felt a nagging, irritating pain in my chest and left arm and numbness in my jaw, tongue etc. Classic symptoms.

My wife drove me to the emergency room at the nearest hospital. I was admitted immediately and taken to a treatment area where two or three doctors and several nurses were helping me. I'd been placed on an emergency room bed while everyone equipped me with IVs, monitors and other things. I felt very calm. One young physician sat beside my bed, watching the monitor to an EKG that was hooked up to me.

Suddenly, I felt deeply relaxed, stared at the ceiling and felt myself begin to float out of my body. The doctor who was watching the monitor said sharply, "What's this?"

I kept floating out of my body. When I had gone what seemed like only a few inches, I felt a force like a hand stop me and hold me in place as though I wasn't to go any farther. Then I heard a gentle voice. Here's what it said:

"There isn't enough humility in the world, but there will be, because there has to be, because there cannot be love without humility. Tell people."

Then I heard the doctor scream, "Clot buster! Now!"

I was injected with a $3,000 shot of medicine that dissolved a clot in an artery in my heart, probably saving my life. I was told that it was a huge gamble on his part, but he did it.

Maybe the voice that I heard was telling him [the doctor] to save me, because I'd been given a message to share. Who knows. I pulled through.