Beating the Odds: Near-Death Diabetic Coma, Recovery and Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

Although there is no medical cure for diabetes, this disease (Type 2) can be defeated with knowledge, proper nutrition, exercise, testing, spiritual health, etc. I know because I used to be a (Type 2) diabetic.

Near-Death Experience
Three years ago I went into a diabetic coma with a blood glucose level of 1337 -- more than twelve hundred points above normal. Despite a set of complications that included severe hyperglycemia, dehydration, two blood clots, pneumonia and four insulin shots a day, I was able to use my engineering and biochemistry background to methodically and completely wean myself off the drugs to lower my average glucose level to 88.5 mg/dl and my hemoglobin A1C to 4.4%, reversing my diabetes and requiring no drugs of any kind -- all in less than 4 months. I credit my recovery to God, the doctors and nurses, my mother, my daughter, my engineering background, and a set of unexplained accidents that guided me through his miraculous recovery.

As an engineer, I was trained to research, analyze, test, draw logical conclusions, and write technical reports based on complex engineering and machine data. Ironically, I was able to use that training to research, analyze, test and draw logical conclusions from the hundreds of clinical studies and other medical research to identify the 5 "super" foods that initiate the body's internal (biochemical) healing mechanism and the 5 "dead" foods that either make us diabetic or keep us diabetic. (I will expand upon this in future emails).

With a lot of encouragement from my daughter and various people from work, the local churches, various people in the wellness industry, and the two diabetic support groups I was running, I am trying to share my experience with as many people as possible. Hopefully it will inspire people the way I have been inspired -- by people I would never have met if it weren't for my experience with diabetes.

Take care and God bless.

Sincerely,

DeWayne McCulley

www.DeathToDiabetes.com

Near-Death Experience
According to everything I've read or heard about NDEs, I didn't have any of the classic Near-Death Experience (NDE) signs such as seeing any bright light or having an "out of body" experience.

While I was in the coma, the doctors had told my daughter to begin making arrangements -- that things didn't look good, my body was shutting down, there wasn't much time left ... When, I awoke from the coma, my daughter shrieked and the doctors were shocked. I heard one doctor say: "I can't believe it. He's alive. He's actually alive. He should be dead." Another doctor said, "He should be dead 10 times over. What do we do now?"

One of the doctors approached me and said "Mr. McCulley, we got some good news, and we got some bad news. The good news is that you're alive. The bad news is that we may need to amputate both your legs." I discuss this event during one of my lectures now on YouTube.

So I was "driven" to find the answer to why I had been in a near-death coma, and why the doctors felt that they needed to amputate both my legs. Every time I visited my doctor or stopped by the hospital, all I heard was "Mr McCulley, you should be dead, 10 times over. You are lucky to be alive."

But, my mother didn't believe in "luck" -- she said it was a blessing from God. She believed that God put into training for 30 years by Corporate America -- to learn everything I could about engineering, and use that knowledge to beat my diabetes, write the book, and then help other diabetics.

But there were events, that as a scientist, I can't explain logically. For example, after I came out of the coma, I was familiar with my condition, known as a "non-ketotic hyperglycemic hyperosomolar coma". My daughter said that one of the doctors in the hospital used that term while they were discussing my coma in another room. It's not clear how I was able to "recall" such a complicated medical phrase since I had never been in that room ...

I didn't experience the classic NDE signs, but I remember the dreams, the nightmares about the graveyard scene while I was in the coma -- but that was just a dream, not an NDE.

I also remember when I came out of the coma that I had been traveling and I was in a large room (like in a hotel) with my daughter (I could hear her voice, but I couldn't see her). There was a birthday cake and candles. There were people praying. I could hear other voices asking me questions, and I would answer the questions. People were laughing and applauding.

I didn't think about it anymore until a few years later, I was invited to speak at a health/wellness forum. It turned out that I was in a large room (in a hotel) with my daughter. We were standing in front of an audience of diabetics answering their questions -- some of this discussion is now on Youtube in a couple different videos. There are photos on my website of me and my daughter speaking at this event.

Another memory I had was of a doctor introducing me to speak, and a woman doing the same thing -- I couldn't see their faces, but I could hear them talking about my recovery from a near-death diabetic coma, and people applauding. This came to pass a few years, and part of it is on Youtube.

There were other images/memories I had while I was in the coma, but at the time they didn't make any sense. For example, the issue about the book title and the photo of the graveyard that I discuss here on my blog ...

And, there are so many 'accidents' that have happened to me since the coma event, but as I mentioned, my mother says there are no accidents -- she believes 'it was meant to be' ...

I also had a dream at that time about being dead or, at least I thought I was dead. In the dream, I could see myself walking towards a grave. As I got closer to the grave, I could see that the first letter of the name on the gravestone was "D" which is the first letter of my name. So, I thought that I was dead, and I would panic and wake up in a cold sweat -- realizing it was just a dream and that I wasn't dead.

When I told my mother about the dream (actually a nightmare, since I don't like graveyards), she said that because of the diabetic coma, God was trying to speak to me. So I said "So is God trying to tell me that I'm dead or going to die in the hospital?"

My mother said: "No, God is trying to tell you something, but you can't wake up from the dream out of fear that you are dead. You must have faith and follow through with the rest of the dream."

It took a couple nights, but I was finally able to watch myself during the entire dream sequence. When I finally got closer to the headstone on the grave site, I could see that the word on the gravestone did start with the letter "D", but the "D" was not for "DeWayne". The name on the headstone was "Diabetes"! But, at that time, I didn't really understand the power of that symbolism. I was just glad that my name was not on the headstone!

Later on, after my recovery, my mother told me that God spared my life, and that I should write a book about my experience with diabetes, the coma, the doctors, the hospital, the insulin shots, and more importantly how I recovered from the diabetic coma and the diabetes episode to get healthy and wean myself off the insulin -- even though the doctors said I would be on insulin for the rest of my life.

When the American Diabetes Association (ADA) heard about my diabetic coma and recovery, they asked me to share my story and I ended up working as a volunteer, running a diabetic support group for the ADA. In addition, various churches and community groups asked me to speak about my recovery from a diabetic coma and a blood glucose level of over 1300. During these speaking engagements, people would ask me if I planned to write a book. At the time, I said: "No, I have no plans to write a book."

But my daughter teamed up with my mother, and both of them kept after me to write a book about my diabetes experience. Instead, I put together a 10-page pamphlet that I handed out during my speaking engagements and at the ADA diabetic support group meetings. But, the pamphlet only drove more questions. I tried to answer the new questions by expanding the pamphlet, which grew to more than 75 pages.

At this point, my daughter said, "Dad, you gotta write the book!" And, when I tried to give my mother excuses for why I'm not qualified to write a book plus I didn't have the time, she said "Son, remember what your father told you when you were growing up? By the time you come up with all those excuses why you can't do something, you could have had it done by now."

If you knew my mother, you would realize that she wasn't going to give in, and that I had no choice. So, I finally relented to write the book, which I did during 2004 and 2005.

But, then, I needed a title for the book. The titles started out looking like this: "How I Beat Diabetes", "Living After a Diabetic Coma", "Surviving Diabetes".

Then, the book titles evolved into: "Surviving Death & Diabetes", Recovering From a Near-Death Diabetic Coma", "Recovery from "Death & Diabetes", "Surviving Death and Diabetes" "Surviving Death from Diabetes" ... but none of the titles clicked with me.

Then, one day while I was talking to my mother on the phone, she said: "The words death and diabetes keep coming up in your titles." My daughter noticed the same thing.

Finally one night, I had the dream again about the graveyard and the headstone with the word "Diabetes" on it. My mother reminded me that God was trying to tell me that "Diabetes" belonged in the graveyard, not the names of the people who are dying and will die from diabetes."

FYI: Here's the graveyard photo: 
                           

Then, it hit me -- what the title of the book should be. "Death to Diabetes"! In other words, put the disease in the graveyard instead of the people with the disease! Kill the disease instead of kill the people! Death to the disease instead of death to the people! Death to Diabetes! -- it made so much sense!

My mother liked the title -- short and sweet, and to the point. My daughter also liked the title. But, the publishers and the so-called book experts didn't like the title. They said it was too grim and too negative, and it didn't make sense. Plus, the title would mean that the first word in my wellness book would be "Death". Publishers told me that a wellness book with "Death" as the first word and with "Death" in the title of the book, that my book would not sell because it sounded too negative.

                                                           

To further complicate matters, the publishers didn't like the photograph of a graveyard on the front cover. And, they didn't like the color of the book cover -- black. They felt that I would be sabotaging my own book sales with such a negative cover and negative book title. Also, they said that there were no other nutritional or wellness books with the word "Death" in the title or with a black cover. They said that most nutritional books were bright colors with titles of hope and positivity.

But, for some strange reason, I didn't listen to the experts ... I stuck with the book title, the book cover photo, and the color of the book cover.

UPDATE: 7/29/09:

And, like they say, the rest is history.

"Death to Diabetes" is now one of the top-selling diabetes books in the United States.

"Death to Diabetes" is gradually becoming the rallying cry of many diabetics who are fed up with the disease, the doctors, and the drugs; and are looking for a better answer. Many of them believe that the answer is "death to diabetes" instead of "death to them". They see the book "Death to Diabetes" as a way out, a beacon of hope. Many diabetics are encouraged when they hear my story -- because they realize that if I can make it back, maybe they can make it back, too.

Here are some video clips of me dicussing my recovery:

 

Note: A copy of my story is on my website (Death to Diabetes).