A US mother who claimed she 'died and went to heaven' after childbirth complications has explained exactly what she saw.
It is often those going through near-death experiences who suggest that they feel closest to God and heaven, with even Bob Mortimer suggesting that he saw 'the light' after his heart stopped beating for a whopping 32 minutes back in 2015.
It's not always an enjoyable experience, as one former drug addict suggested that he 'went to hell' while he was on the operating table, suggesting that he wouldn't even wish it on Adolf Hitler, as he became an evangelical pastor following his life-changing out-of-body event.
However, in the case of 32-year-old Hannah Mercado, it was a brief 60 seconds where her heart stopped and she was considered medically dead - but it was still long enough for her to feel herself floating away and heading towards a bright light.
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She had just given birth to her second son Watson before she started to feel acutely unwell while she was in hospital, with doctors rushing back into help as she haemorrhaged blood and soon flatlined.
She said: "The birth was pretty uneventful. I felt super calm and kept my cool, it was a really quick labour. Everything was very uneventful until about 12 hours after giving birth.
"I wasn't feeling super great, I had really bad stomach cramps and had some pretty big clots coming out.
"The nurse said it was totally normal, but then I got the most intense pain I'd ever felt before. Then there was blood everywhere and a blood clot came out of me that was the size of a pineapple."
An ultrasound quickly revealed that her placenta was still inside her uterus, which triggered the intense bleeding and caused her to feel incredibly thirsty, before she eventually fell unconscious.
This is where the near-death experience first began for the mum-of-two, as she claims that she floated away from her body and saw 'the brightest light' she'd ever seen in her life.
She added: "I couldn't see myself because I was surrounded by so many people. I could look down and see all these people working on me.
"It wasn't like my body was floating, it was like my mind was floating away. I do believe it was my soul leaving my body.
"That was only for a couple of seconds then at that point I thought 'I'm never going to see my kids again'. That was heartbreaking. That was my last thought before I saw the brightest light I'd ever seen in my life.
"You could stare into the sun for minutes and it would never be this bright. It was all-encompassing, I was like inside the bright, white light. That's when I knew I was dead. I felt so at peace, it was like my soul was at peace.
"Then it felt like I was drop-kicked into being alive, it was very abrupt and sudden. I was in a panic, I didn't know what had happened."
Fortunately, as she contemplated the thought of never seeing her children again, the stay-at-home mother regained consciousness and returned to her body, later undergoing two blood transfusions after losing half of her body's blood supply.
There was also a silver lining for Hannah, who suggests that her Christian beliefs have now been affirmed and that she no longer fears death.
James Moorhouse