Man ‘died’, came back to life and claims to remember one thing from ‘afterlife’

Bert Biscoe collapsed in his home (Image: Lee Threwhela) Deputy Lord Lieutenant and county councillor, Bert Biscoe, collapsed at home due to a diabetic condition he didn’t know he had – which was later diagnosed as a seizure. His quick-thinking wife called 999 and was walked through administering chest compressions, but the ordeal left him unconscious for 10 days. After recovering from the condition, the well-regarded former Mayor of Truro joked that he didn’t like the accommodation in “the afterlife” so he decided to come back, but not before remembering one visceral thing during his coma. Deputy Lord Lieutenant Biscoe, 70, from Truro, told  Cornwall Live  that he distinctly remembered seeing his family standing near him, “floating doctors” and tubes coming out of him, while spending the majority of his time on the other side “in the dark”. Mr Biscoe made light of his recent health scare (Image: Greg Martin) The former Mayor of Truro said: ‘I was dead then, I had a profound time on the other side in the dark but didn’t like the accommodation and came back. “I was out of it for ten days, unconscious for a chunk of it and then put into a controlled coma. I had no idea of the passage of time or what was going on. ‘As I was coming out of the coma I opened my eyes and this may have been hallucinatory but I remember looking up at a mirror and seeing myself with a green tube coming out of my mouth, doctors floating around a bit ethereally and my wife and two daughters were there. ‘When I got out of the hospital and was standing waiting to cross a road when this woman came up to me among several congregations who said that they’d been praying for me. ‘She asked me if I’d had any hallucinations or visions to which the answer is no, It was just dark, I had the same question from research people at ICU.’ Mr Biscoe wrote a poem about his experience (Image: Lee Threwhela) Summing up his experience in a poem Deputy Lord Lieutenant Biscoe penned A la Commode, describing humorously how he knew things would be fine when he used his bedpan after coming out of the coma. He added: “She said ‘Do you believe?’ and I said I didn’t. I did tell her I sensed all the prayers, all the positive vibes and thoughts, all the letters and all the cards and that they created a kind of force of goodwill around me. ‘I think it’s no coincidence ‘care’ rhymes with ‘prayer’. The combination of all that thought and the technology, skill and innate cheerfulness of the staff at Treliske hospital is the reason I’m still here. ‘The other thing at Treliske which is really remarkable, which I hadn’t really thought about before, is that it is populated by an international group of people. One of the consultants was Iranian, the guy in the kitchen was from New Zealand, there were a couple of Filipino nurses who came in for a chat with me, and lots of staff from Africa; people from all over the world. ‘It is a wonderment that here we have this thing which is dedicated to the people of Cornwall, like me, who collapse in their kitchen, they pitch up in ten minutes, shove a tube down your throat and pull you back. ‘It’s a huge thing for it to be provided by people from all over the world. It says something really profound and important about the society we live in these days.’