‘I died and went to Hell for 18 days, one act let me escape to Heaven’

Doctors fought for 18 days to save Kathy’s life, while she found herself surrounded by demons in a burning city of screams

A woman who spent 18 days in a coma after her lungs failed says she experienced the ‘afterlife’ – and fought demons in Hell before being reunited with an old love in Heaven. Kathy McDaniel, then 53-year was put into a medically-induced coma after developing severe inflammation and fluid build-up in her lungs.

Doctors fought to save her life over the course of 18 days, but Kathy says she was fighting her own struggle from the moment she went into a coma. She said: “I was suddenly hurled into a vast void, and then I found myself in a very hellish place.

“It was frightening, foggy, smelly, hot. I never felt dead – it was just always me. And I went through this really awful, long experience.”

Now 79, Kathy became ill and was hospitalised in 1999, and was given ‘strong sedatives and amnesic drugs’, which should have suppressed her memory. But instead of a complete blackout, Kathy “awoke” in what felt like an otherworldly realm.

At first, she found herself in complete darkness. Then, a voice “roared” at her, saying “Do you know where you are?”. Kathy said: “I was terrified and utterly confused.

“I was clamping my shaking hands over my ears as my mind raced for a rational explanation. All I could see was total darkness. I knew I was in the wrong place. Finally, I whispered, ‘Hell’.”

Kathy recounts “running” after hearing an eerie laugh, and emerged onto a chaotic scene. She said: “It looked like New York or some big city, and there were fires and screaming and people running. It didn’t feel like a dream, but somewhere real.”

She recalls being surrounded by figures she portrays as demons – voices that didn’t just threaten her, but also attacked and wore her down. She said: “During the days that followed, these demons were always encouraging me to despair.”

Kathy says she was tormented by these beings, including a “robed demon resembling a judge” telling her she would be freed if she cleared a field of blackberry canes with a pair of round-tipped scissors – only for the branches to continuously grow back.

Despite her plight, she had an innate sense that she would eventually be released. She said: “I would chant with a trembling voice, ‘I will not despair. I will get out of here. I will not despair…’. I was a fighter, and said ‘There’s something wrong about this. I don’t belong here.’ So I kept fighting.”

After what felt like “long months”, she was approached by a ‘demonic female’ who ordered her to follow her to a group of women wearing rags. The group were taken to a new territory, according to Kathy, which was a “freezing” landscape with a blizzard swirling around them.

They were given lodgings in a ‘desolate’ log cabin and given jobs to do, but when one comrade believed the day to be Christmas back on Earth, Kathy started singing a carol. She was ordered to stop, but continued, to shocking results.

She recalls: “Unexpectedly, I felt my entire being flooded with an immense love, peace and joy. I was blasted into Heaven.”

Kathy opened her eyes to a new place entirely, which she describes as a cathedral-like marble room surrounded by an “otherworldly” garden and filled with a “misty, warm white light”

There, she was stunned to meet a familiar face – Rick, her former fiancée, who had died just a week before his 54th birthday a month before Kathy was hospitalised. Kathy said: “He appeared much younger, around 35 years old. Miraculously, our conversation was telepathic and flowed easily back and forth.

“He was glad to see me and said ‘Good job, I’m proud of you – you haven’t lost your touch’.”

She recalls then spotting a book nearby, filled with a record of her life, and says her former flame told her she could not stay in the Heaven-like place. Kathy said: “He told me I have too much left to do. I just wanted to stay, but the message was clear, so I clung to his words.”

She recalls suddenly waking up in her hospital bed, and learned she had been comatose for 18 days. Kathy remained in hospital for two months as she gained strength before being allowed home.

Although she initially shared her experience with her family, Kathy kept quiet about much of what she had been through, fearing the shame of admitting she had gone to ‘Hell’. She said: “Most people didn’t want to hear my story – they were upset or dismissive, and others said it was too depressing or strange.

“Others asked why I had ended up in Hell, and some insisted it was just the drugs [I had been on in hospital].”

For decades since, she has lived with the clear memories of her experience – but has managed to view the “hellish” journey as a profound experience filled with lessons to appreciate her life and help her “wake up” spiritually. She has gone on to share her tale in a memoir, Misfit in Hell to Heaven Expat.

Kathy said: “After a trip to Hell and Heaven, I have learned acceptance regarding unusual happenings and believe there are no coincidences, only events not fully understood.” She currently works with fellow people who have experienced near death experiences, and has renewed faith in a higher power as a result of her own – no longer fearing death.

Kathy added: “The three most important words in the English language are God, Love, and Home – they are all the same thing.”