Experience description:

On April 28th 2007, I was mauled nearly to death by a neighbor’s Pit Bull in the alley behind my house.  

My friends Scotty (8), Chris (15), Kyle (12) and I (10) were playing nerf tag in my neighborhood. Scotty and I teamed up against Chris & Kyle in this round of the game, and I got an idea to run around to the front of my row-home neighborhood, cut into the alley through my house and sneak up behind them while Scotty distracted them. Once I got about halfway to my house, I heard Scotty scream from the alley. I assumed it was just a playful fake war scream given the game we were playing, but once I made it to my gate to cut through to the alley, my other 2 friends were there and told me that Scotty had just been attacked by a dog. At first, I thought it was a trick and I pointed my nerf gun at them, to which they immediately dropped their guns. 'No, we’re not playing!'

Initially, I had no idea what they meant. I figured maybe a yellow lab or something chased him around and jumped on him and that was it. I said 'Ok, let’s go get him then.' We started down the alley and I’m leading the pack, pointing my gun around playfully and pretending we’re on a mission, still not fully grasping the gravity of the situation. That’s when I saw a small spatter of Scotty’s blood on the alley.

Scotty didn’t sustain any major injuries, only some stitches on his face and shoulder. The owner came out and got the dog off him as Chris & Kyle were running away, and he stupidly put the dog right back in the small roofless pen it had just escaped from. He took Scotty inside to clean him up, and told him to tell his mom that he fell off his bike. He threatened to come after him if he told her otherwise.

Seconds after I noticed the blood, I heard the rattling of a fence. I looked to my left and saw a stocky, tan, white-chested Pit Bull jumping out of his pen towards me. I immediately turned and ran back up the alley trailing Kyle. Chris had frozen in place and the dog ran right past him. Kyle was able to jump a fence that was to his left, and since no escape route was near me, I was the lone target.

The dog tackled my 55 pound frame easily and quickly chomped on my face, gashing deep into my cheek and nearly tearing my right nostril completely off my face, leaving it dangling from my nose. I threw my arm up to defend myself and it bit at that too, leaving more deep gashes. Finally, it went for the kill shot and bit down on my left thigh and threw me around like a ragdoll for what felt like 2 minutes.

As you can expect, I was screaming hysterically. I remember noticing that I could barely hear myself scream, and also that I could feel its teeth scraping into my femur. I also noticed that I wasn’t feeling any pain… I was clearly in shock. I then remember thinking 'I feel like I should be bleeding a lot more than I am…' and almost immediately after that, I could hear my blood hitting the pavement sounding like a water bottle was being poured out on the ground. The dog had severed my femoral artery.

Thoughts of death then started to fill my head. I was too young to really grasp the concept of death, but given my current circumstance it made sense to me that it would probably happen. I remember distinctly thinking about everyone in my family at my Grandmother’s house for our weekly dinners and me not being there. This and many more thoughts ran through my head all while I was still being thrown around by this dog.

Eventually, the owner came out and got the dog off me, he was freaking out as he realized this attack was way more serious. He took the dog inside and hid. He never even called 911.

I got up and attempted to run home purely off adrenaline, but the damage to my leg left me collapsing over and over again until I heard a voice yelling at me to stay down.

Thank God, my other neighbor heard the screaming and called 911. Shortly after, Scotty’s mom ran down the alley to me holding a baseball bat and kneeled by my side. After that, my mother ran down the alley and knelt beside me as well.

I remember asking if I was going to die, to which they said no, probably trying to convince themselves as well as me. I remember being extremely thirsty and tired, and even saying 'I’m gonna just go to sleep now, wake me up when we get to the hospital.' Scotty’s mom told me not to do that, but I just felt so comfortable. It was like laying down for the best sleep of your life. I did my best to stay awake.

Then I had a vision. I wasn’t laying down in my alley anymore, I was laying on Scotty’s front lawn across the street from my house. I remember Scotty and two of my other neighborhood friends, Ashley & Brenna kneeling down beside me, asking me what had happened to me. I remember also maybe some adults in the neighborhood standing off to the side but that part is foggy. They were all comforting me saying I was okay. I remember looking at the sky and it was unbelievably bright. I then heard a yell from across the street. It was my mother calling my name from our front door. 'Dom, come on we gotta go! Come on!' I then quickly floated from Scotty’s lawn across the street and into the door to my house as my mother was holding it open, and that’s when I woke back up laying in my alley again.

I never knew if this was just a hallucination due to the blood loss or a truly other-worldly experience. Having been through such a traumatic experience at such a young age combined with the hectic events following the attack, I never was really able to process the vision, I always more or less kind of just wrote it off as a dream I had while drifting in and out of consciousness. However, I know it could be much more than that.

I was never pronounced clinically dead since I was still waiting for the ambulance, but it is very well possible that I did briefly die. I was taken to John’s Hopkins, the best hospital in the world that luckily was just under 10 miles from my house and spent 4 days in the ICU and 17 total days recovering. I underwent an initial surgery that lasted nearly 6 hours and had to receive 5 blood transfusions. It is absolutely a miracle that I’m alive today.

I don’t know what to make of my experience, but I do like to believe it was a brief glimpse at the other side.

At the time of your experience was there an associated life-threatening event?   Yes 

Was the experience difficult to express in words?  No    

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness?      About the same throughout

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness?      Normal consciousness and alertness   I guess it was normal awareness

Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience.   I never really thought about that before, but i don’t remember having to look around accept for when I saw my mom, it was like my vision zoomed over to her. Since I was laying on my back in the vision I suppose I had 180 degrees of vision.

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience.   Almost echoed/muffled

Did you see or hear any earthly events that were occurring during a time that your consciousness / awareness was apart from your physical / earthly body?   Uncertain  

What emotions did you feel during the experience?   None really  

Did you pass into or through a tunnel?   Uncertain   It was my front door

Did you see an unearthly light?   Yes   The sky was extremely bright

Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence, or hear an unidentifiable voice?   No

Did you encounter or become aware of any beings who previously lived on earth who are described by name in religions (for example: Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.)?   No  

Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased (or alive) beings?   Yes   Friends/Neighbors

Did you become aware of past events in your life during your experience?   No  

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world?   No

Did time seem to speed up or slow down?   No

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything?   No

Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure?   No

Did you come to a border or point of no return?   No

Did scenes from the future come to you?  No 

During your experience, did you encounter any specific information / awareness suggesting that there either is (or is not) continued existence after earthly life (“life after death”)?   No  

During your experience, did you encounter any specific information / awareness that God or a supreme being either does (or does not) exist?   No  

During your experience, did you encounter any specific information / awareness that you either did (or did not) exist prior to this lifetime?   No  

During your experience, did you encounter any specific information / awareness that a mystical universal connection or unity/oneness either does (or does not) exist?   No  

During your experience, did you encounter any specific information / awareness regarding earthly life’s meaning or purpose?   No  

During your experience, did you encounter any specific information / awareness regarding earthly life’s difficulties, challenges, or hardships?   No  

During your experience, did you encounter any specific information / awareness regarding love?   No  

During your experience, did you encounter any other specific information / awareness that you have not shared in other questions that is relevant to living our earthly lives?   No  

Did you have a sense of knowing special knowledge or purpose?   No  

What occurred during your experience included:   Content that was entirely consistent with the beliefs you had at the time of your experience   Everything seemed normal until I floated to my mother

How accurately do you remember the experience in comparison to other life events that occurred around the time of the experience?   I remember the experience as accurately as other life events that occurred around the time of the experience     

My experience directly resulted in:   No changes in my life

Did you have any changes in your values or beliefs after the experience that occurred as a result of the experience?   No  

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience?   No       

Have you ever shared this experience with others?   Yes  I shared it with my parents while I was still in the hospital. They sort of drew the same conclusion that it could have been a spiritual experience or just simply a hallucination.

Did you have any knowledge of near death experience (NDE) prior to your experience?   No  

What did you believe about the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened:   Experience was probably real   I never really knew what to think of it

What do you believe about the reality of your experience at the current time:   Experience was probably real   I still am not 100% certain

Have your relationships changed specifically as a result of your experience?      No

Have your religious beliefs/spiritual practices changed specifically as a result of your experience?   No  

At any time in your life, has anything ever reproduced any part of the experience?   Yes   I can lucid dream pretty consistently, and the floating is kind of similar I guess?  

Did the questions asked and information that you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience?   Yes

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