DANCING the night away at a family party, Vania suddenly felt an agonising, sharp pain in her head.
Within moments, she had collapsed and was rushed to hospital – but what happened next would change her life forever.
10
10
The 45-year-old mum-of-three had suffered a haemorrhagic stroke and her husband, Sinecil, also 45, was told it was unlikely she’d make it.
But after she was blue-lighted to A&E, Vania Valtriani claims she found herself transported to what she describes as “another realm”, where she was reunited with her dead dad.
“Suddenly my father, Romolo, who passed away 16 years earlier from cancer, aged 74, was there right in front of me,” says the business administrator.
“It was like he was alive, there’s no doubt about it. And when I saw him, he wasn’t elderly or ill.
“He appeared young and was surrounded by a beautiful light.
“I recall him looking the same as he did when I was a child.
“His face had something about it that I had never seen on earth.
“It was filled with peace, love and calm.”
10
10
Vania’s ordeal came about in 2014 when she was studying for a master’s degree in business administration.
And while it is unusual, it is far from unique, with one UK study finding that around one in ten (11.1 per cent) of cardiac arrest survivors claim to have memories of so-called near-death experiences.
Vania, who had suffered no health issues previously, recalls feeling like a “knife had been twisted” in her head.
At the hospital, doctors warned her family to make plans to say goodbye.
“The doctor returned after I had surgery and said I wouldn’t survive. It was a given,” she says.
“The stroke’s damage was as if I had fallen from a great height.
“I was placed on a life-support machine and remained in a coma for three days.”
After being transported to her dad, Vania says the pair spoke without using words, communicating “through their minds” – with him saying “daughter” and reaching out to her, while she told him “I love you Dad, but I have to stay”.
Vania, who lives in Utah, USA, and is mum to Jonathan, 18, Rebeca, 14, and eight-year-old Alissa, says: “He opened his arms to me and told me to walk with him.
“All I could feel was a profound sense of love.
“But I wasn’t ready to leave. I had to say my second goodbyes to him as I agreed to go back to earth.
“Then, he disappeared.”
After she was “zapped back” into her physical body, Vania says the pain returned and was even more intense.
But as she opened her eyes, another man was waiting – and it wasn’t her husband, who works in marketing, but someone Vania took to be an angel.
“He was tall with brown hair and had these amazing brown eyes,” she says.
“It was almost like fire was inside of them.
10
10
“At first, I thought he was an angel – he spoke in my brain, rather than out loud.”
Vania claims the man spoke about her son, Jonathan, and her husband, sharing how happy he was with their goodwill efforts and faithful natures.
She adds: “He said, ‘you have a husband that is a very faithful man, and because of this, he will see a miracle in his life’.”
He also gave Vania an important message he told her she had to share.
She says: “He kept telling me everything would be alright and that death isn’t the end of our story.”
But suddenly, he vanished – and so did her pain.
Things took an even stranger turn when Vania, who has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 39 years, came round from her coma.
When she awoke, she saw her husband at her bedside.
10
10
She said: “When my husband saw me open my eyes, he was very happy and started calling the doctors, and the nurse removed the tube in my mouth.
“I told him I saw my dad and Jesus.
“They probably thought I was crazy.
“I was feeling pain in my head, so I was not feeling so good and had to stay at the hospital for almost 40 days.”
Once back in her own body, she claims the person lying beneath her skin wasn’t the same Vania.
“My own family and friends didn’t even recognise who I was anymore,” she says.
“I’d changed my whole perspective on how I see life, like my fear of failing, and also my body, because I’m now taking care of my health much more.”
Vania had follow-ups with her doctor every six months after leaving the hospital, and started exercising at the gym and keeping her diet healthier to protect her health.
After two years, her visits were reduced to every six months, and after five years she was signed off from further checks.
She adds: “My mum, Noémia, 75, said the daughter she once knew disappeared that day.
“I couldn’t even remember my native language, Portuguese – only English.
“I had to re-learn it and it took me about three weeks.
10
10
“The doctors told me losing language skills can be normal after this kind of trauma.
“But I’ve come back with such a valuable lesson – life is to be lived.
“Despite everything, I am much happier and I face troubles head on.
“I was once afraid of dying and losing those around me, but this experience has shown me that your loved ones are never truly gone.
“You will see them again when they’re alive and well in a different realm.”
She adds: “My doctor told me I am a miracle and they don’t know how to explain what happened to me.”