AT 24, Rubi Rolgue felt like her life was finally falling into place. She had just got married, moved cities and was months away from finishing her degree in medical studies.
But then, in an instant, it was all ripped away after a life-threatening left her brain dead – but what she saw on the “other side” changed her life forever.
Rubi Rolgue was declared brain-dead following a life-threatening blood clot at the age of 24Credit: Jam Press/AJ Parr
When she eventually awoke in hospital, she believed five years had passedCredit: Jam Press/AJ Parr
Rubi, who was classed as for 10 minutes, claims her current life was “erased” as she was transported to a parallel timeline for five years.
“I didn’t leap into another place or time,” the medical student says.
“My life simply seemed to continue, day-by-day, from 2025 until 2030.
“The future world was more advanced and peaceful than the one I had left behind.
“We weren’t so Technology had automated common tasks so that people had more time for socialising.
“I still had my job, but I spent most of my time with my husband and the rest of my family.
“As the years passed, all of us got older, as we would have done during those five years.”
Rubi, from , had started her day in April 2025 like normal.
By midday, though, she was on the phone pleading to her husband, who has asked not to be named, for help.
She wasn’t able to move her legs and was struggling to breathe; her oxygen levels quickly plummeted to 65 per cent, which is lethal.
At hospital, it was found she had suffered a bilateral pulmonary thromboembolism, where blood clots obstruct arteries in both lungs.
She says: “I don’t remember anything about this day.
“It’s a complete blank.
“I was suffocating from within.
“Two massive blood clots had formed and blocked both my right and left pulmonary arteries.
“I had a total blockage.”
‘It was an alternative reality’
At 10pm, Rubi had her first cardiac arrest and just five hours later, her heart stopped beating.
She says: “This time, I was clinically dead for more than ten minutes.
“When doctors restarted my heart, my pupils were dilated and fixed, showing no reaction to light or stimuli.
“I was declared brain dead.
“They told my parents there was nothing more they could do.”
It was during that 10 minute time period that Rubi experienced her alternate reality.
Rubi says that she lived in a ‘parallel lifetime’ for five yearsCredit: Jam Press/AJ Parr
The reality was that she was clinically dead for ten minutesCredit: Jam Press/AJ Parr
Rubi has been left with permanent brain damage and is unable to walkCredit: Jam Press/AJ Parr
She describes that world as a continuation of the life she already had, rather than a completely different reality.
She says: “The same husband that I have here, I had there too.”
She also made clear that this was not a totally separate existence, saying: “It was not a jump. It was a continuation.
“My same family was there with me. It was the same life I had. Even my little dog was there.”
‘I ended up in hospital in that world’
While Rubi’s experiences may seem far-fetched, written accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) date back to at least the Middle Ages but there is no widely accepted definition of what an NDE is.
Typically, though, the term refers to the mystical, profound experiences that people report having when they are on the verge of death.
Statistics show they’re most common in patients who survive severe head traumas or cardiac arrest.
Worldwide, it’s believed that somewhere between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of people who come close to death report having an NDE – accounting for around five per cent of the population.
Such individuals – or NDErs, as they’re collectively known – often report being deeply changed afterwards, whether that be a newfound appreciation for life, a diminished fear of death, or a spiritual awakening.
It took me quite a while to understand I had time travelled
Rubi Rolgue
The field of science remains divided on the matter. Some attribute NDEs to hallucinatory flights of imagination, the final gasping breaths of a dying brain.
However, others believe NDEs may help to unlock the mysteries of human consciousness – and the possibility that it may continue to live on even after our bodies die.
While she was unconscious, it was planned for Rubi to be transported back home, where she would remain on life support indefinitely.
Towards the end of her alternate reality, though, things were also turning dark.
She says: “I suffered a traumatic attack by three men at a party in this timeline.
“I ended up in hospital in that world, too, as if my trauma was echoing across both realities.
“The day I suffered the attack marked the beginning of my journey back and the end of my five-year experience.
“It was painful, complicated and exhausting.”
She is sharing her story to show people that death is ‘not the end’Credit: Jam Press/AJ Parr
Suddenly, her body “zapped” back into the physical world as she passed through a “hellish” tunnel filled with her greatest fears.
She says: “I don’t want to say exactly what I lived through because these are things I fear personally, my own fears, from experiences I’ve had, and I had to relive them.
“It was the worst you can imagine.”
I was confused when I saw my brother, as he looked so much younger than he did the last time I had seen him – in 2030
She describes how a light flashed twice, which she touched, and brought her back to life.
Rubi, however, was not relieved to be waking up.
She says: “That was my real hell – waking up in this life.
“I had multiple surgeries during my coma, but I never felt a thing.
“The pain came when I woke up.
“I was unable to speak, told I had permanent brain damage and that I would never walk again.
“Everyone was shocked to see me back.
“I was confused when I saw my brother, as he looked so much younger than he did the last time I had seen him – in 2030.
“I was so afraid of the attackers in the other world that I pleaded for help.
“Soon, I realised I had been in a coma for a month and that the other world wasn’t real.
“It took me quite a while to understand I had time-travelled.”
LIFE AFTER DEATH
A WOMAN claims to have gone to heaven and met God as she slipped in a coma following a horrifying near-death experience.
Mariandree Cárdenas was working from home one day when she felt her throat start to close up and began .
Her hands began twitching, and she felt like her face was “falling asleep”.
Mariandree realised she could no longer speak.
She managed to text her mother and brother for help, who rushed over and found her unconscious.
The 24-year-old – who was diagnosed with severe as a child – was taken to hospital, where doctors were forced to intubate her and later place her in a coma.
As her body lay unconscious in her hospital bed, Mariandree claimed her mind was far from quiet.
“I couldn’t hear almost anything anymore and my body no longer responded,” Mariandree, a graphic designer, told What’s The Jam .
“The last thing I heard was a nurse or doctor say the phrase ‘she left us’.
“And in the blink of an eye I stopped being on Earth and appeared somewhere else.”
Rubi says that following the experience, she now feels a much deeper spiritual connection, values the present more, and wants to use her story to help others.
“I always wanted to base everything on science,” she says.
‘Death is not a wall – but a doorway to a life that never truly ends’
“But I realised there are things that don’t have a scientific or medical explanation.”
Rubi, who was raised Catholic, says that while she doesn’t believe she saw heaven, the experience has deepened her faith.
However, she is careful to reiterate that she doesn’t think her experience was ‘psychic’ and considers what she experienced as memories from that other reality, not as a definite prediction of the future.
“I have also been careful about what things I mention and what I don’t, from the things I remember.”
She says that as time passes, she is forgetting parts of what she saw.
She adds: “The more I move forward in time here, the more I forget my memories from there.
“I repeat this a lot: value life and live in the present because no one knows for sure anything about tomorrow.”
Now, she’s sharing her story in search of answers and to show people that death isn’t truly the end.
She added: “I’ve felt a deeper spiritual connection than I had before.
“Sharing my story has allowed me to bring hope to so many people who are looking for answers.
“Death is not a wall – but a doorway to a life that never truly ends.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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