Article July 2, 2001 Issue

Death did not end my life

They said, "He's dead," and they were pounding on my chest and everything.

By Howard Johnson

At 17, I joined the Navy. About four or five years later, while I was on a destroyer, I had an appendicitis attack. There was no doctor on board—just the corpsman. And so they sent me to an oiler, another ship that was traveling with us and that had a young doctor.

He said, "You've got appendicitis, and we're going to operate." He proceeded to give me a spinal injection, which was supposed to keep me from feeling the pain of the operation. But when he drew a line where he was going to make the incision, I said, "I felt that."

"No, you didn't, you can't feel it," he said, and went ahead with the operation.