Woman who died for 25 minutes wrote spine-chilling message after returning to life
Back in 2018, Tina Hines of Phoenix, Arizona, suffered a heart attack after going on a hike with her husband. As it was later revealed by her family, the incident was totally unexpected, with Hines’ niece Madie Johnson describing her as “one of the most amazing, discerning, and healthy people I know.”
In a 2019 Instagram post recounting her aunt’s short-lived death—no pun intended—Johnson shared a photo of her latest tattoo and the incredible story behind it. In the post’s caption, she revealed that she had tattooed the scrawly message Hines wrote on a piece of paper just moments after she was resuscitated.
Johnson also revealed that Hines had to be “brought back to life four times” by her husband Brian and first responders who arrived on the scene before she even made it to hospital. Placed on a defibrillator, the mum of four miraculously woke up and, according to her niece, the first thing she did was ask for a pen so she could write something important.
Hines managed to scribble out a message which read “it’s real.” When asked what she meant was real, the woman allegedly pointed up towards the sky, a sign her family understood as a confirmation of the existence of heaven.
Since being brought back to life, Hines has made it her mission to tell as many people about her experience, becoming a Christian motivational speaker and writing a book claiming that heaven is real.
Johnson’s tattoo artist, Suede Silver, also took to Facebook to share the family’s story. And it certainly resonated with many people in the post’s comments section, with one user writing, “I’ve seen it. Most beautiful feeling in the world. I was in a warm, bright and beautiful place. Trying to get to some people in front of me. I wanted to get to them so bad but I guess it wasn’t my time to stay.”
A second shared, “I died in 2009 and experienced the beauty of heaven and the immense love of God. It changed me forever. I was a simple school teacher, wife and mom who secretly doubted if God could love me. Boy did I find out!”
Meanwhile, some sceptical users couldn’t help but reason such a story with science-based facts. “There’s actually a scientific reasoning for this. Brain death causes bright lights and hallucinations. It’s evolution’s way of comforting you for death, not some sort of god,” one user wrote.
According to a 2013 study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), near-death experiences are essentially an electrical surge in the brain and can be responsible for the intense experiences vividly described by survivors.
That being said, as seen with Hines and those who have responded to her story, many continue to believe that the experience is a spiritual one. To each their own.
