A taekwondo instructor who dropped dead in the middle of a basketball game for 28 minutes has revealed what he saw as he was sent to St Peter’s pearly gates.
Phill Zdybel, 57, collapsed following a coronary artery aneurysm while playing an intense game of basketball, which triggered a massive heart attack in November last year.
His son Joshua, witnessed the incident as he was watching him play that day in Geelong, Australia.
Luckily, Josh called emergency services fast enough the moment he saw his dad, who works as a taxi driver for people with disabilities fall.
The emergency services got there in time to save his life after onlookers also grabbed a nearby defibrillator to try and restart his heart.
When Phill woke up in hospital a few days later, he said he was told he had been dead for 28 minutes.
Phill revealed that despite all the stories he had heard about dying, he didn’t see any white lights or heavenly figures during his brush with death.
Instead, he felt like he was floating above and looking down on his own body while an off-duty nurse tried desperately to revive him.
‘I would say I was a bit out of body,’ he told the Geelong Advertiser.
Phil admitted it was a ‘miracle’ that he suffered the shock heart attack with so many people around, realising that there was a chance he could’ve died in his sleep.
‘No one would have found me,’ Phil grimly said. ‘I’m a miracle man.’
Phil said that just a few months after his incident, he has already returned to competitive taekwondo despite previously considering giving up martial arts following a previous health scare.
