'Everyone was panicking but not me. All I could hear was silence, it was a beautiful feeling'

Amani Elhoni told Lara Alsaid about the out-of-body experience she had whilst having a stroke on the train in 2007. She is alive and healthy today, although doctors thought she wouldn't make it.

It was a normal spring day for Amani Elhoni. It was Easter weekend and she was sitting on the train on her way to the mall with her friends, her daughter was sitting on her lap. Amani looked out the window, soaking up the sun which had just started coming out in Sweden after a long, dark winter. Life was good. Little did she know that seconds away, her world would turn upside down and all that would be left for her to see was her body lying on the ground, fighting for her life after suffering a stroke that almost snatched her life away right in front of her eyes. On April 13, 2007, no-one would have believed she would still be here, talking about the stroke she had that day. You can sense her appreciation of life. She is happy she’s still alive.

She starts to speak, confidently, about what happened to her. It was a Friday, she remembers. She was not at work as it was Easter, so she, her friends and daughter were on the train going to a mall where they had arranged Easter celebrations and activities for children.

Amani was newly-divorced, alone in a foreign country and trying to adapt to her new life with no family around her. A single mother of a five-year-old, Amani had also started a new job. It was a new and difficult chapter in her life. She felt overwhelmed and stressed. The train was packed, there were barely any seats available. However, there was one seat with a shopping bag on it. Amani kindly asked the owner of the bag if she could remove it so that her daughter could sit but the lady refused.

An agitated and upset Amani sat down on the only seat available and put her daughter on her lap. Amani started feeling dizzy and got a piercing pain in her forehead and suddenly, she lost consciousness. Next thing she remembers is seeing her own body on the floor of the train.

At that time, Amani did not know anything about out-of-body experiences, later the doctors told her that she had died and returned. “I can still feel it and remember it, but I can´t describe the feeling, it is indescribable,” Amani explains, with a deep sigh, still anxious about what happened that day.

She still remembers looking down at her body and seeing the commotion around her. Her daughter, who had fallen over with her, was on the floor next to her, and her friends were around her. Everyone was panicking except for Amani. All she could hear was silence, all she felt was “a beautiful, peaceful, and calm feeling. I didn’t feel sadness, panic, or fright, just peaceful silence, that is all it was,” she says, smiling.

If the ambulance were a few minutes late to the hospital, Amani would not be here with us today, the doctors told her. Although she experienced something very traumatic, the out-of-body experience was the best that came out of it. It has completely changed her perspective on death. She talks about it as something beautiful. She is not scared of death anymore as she has an idea of what it will be like afterward. “I will be going to a better place, there is nothing to be afraid of, death is not scary,” she says, confidently.

With rehab, she was taught how to walk and talk again. It all took a turn, from being dead for a few minutes to the doctors being worried she might be paralyzed, to being able to stand on her feet again. Today, Amani is alive and healthy, with no signs of a stroke except for a small scar on her forehead. “I feel very lucky,” she says. “I appreciate my life more today.”

Amani does not want to complain too much about what happened to her, she repeats how lucky she was for surviving an aneurysm without any serious consequences. It has made her appreciate her loved ones and life more. “I always try to tell people that it is not worth stressing about life or holding grudges. Always tell your loved ones you love them because there will come a time when you won’t have the chance to do that,” she says.

In September 2007, five months after her stroke she was back at work, but this time, her quality of life was better. She lost weight and stopped smoking, things she struggled with before the incident. “I want to make use of whatever is left of my life, I want to feel the gratitude of how lucky I was to make it out alive and healthy,” Amani concludes with a smile, happy that she still walks this earth today.