Note: we are republishing this story, which originally made the news in October 2015.
A North Carolina woman has penned a book detailing the aftermath of a car accident that killed her husband and very nearly killed her son, the latter of whom maintains he went to heaven before being revived (video below).
Landon Whitley was 8 years old when the crash occurred in October 1997. He was technically dead on three separate occasions: once at the scene of the accident, once in the ambulance and once at the hospital, according to Fox News.
Each time paramedics and doctors were able to bring him back to life. Before they did, however, Whitley says he experienced the afterlife. This reportedly included “streets of gold,” Jesus, angels and deceased members of his family.
Whitley’s mother, Julie Kemp, recalled the moment she tried to tell her 8-year-old son, who was still recovering from his traumatic injuries in the hospital, that his father was dead.
Photo credit: CBN via YouTube
“I said, ‘Landon, do you know where your dad is at?'” Kemp told CBN. “And he told me, ‘Yes, I know where he’s at, I saw him in heaven.'”
Then came his more astonishing claim.
“He looked over to me and he says, ‘Oh mom, by the way, I forgot to tell you I saw your other two kids,'” Kemp said. “And I just looked at him because I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. But I had two miscarriages before Landon was born.”
“We had never shared that with Landon,” she continued. “He did not know that we had lost two children before him.”
Whitley says he instinctively recognized them to be his siblings.
“I knew that they were my siblings even though no one had ever told me about them,” he told CBN. “Just being in heaven, I guess you know your own or you know who everyone is.”
Due to the accident, Whitley now has 23 metal plates in his head and is unable to see out of his left eye, according to Fox News. He says he hopes that his own experience gives other people faith in the Christian God.
“I just want people to realize that Jesus is real, there is a heaven, there are angels, and to follow his word and the bible, and life does get better at the end,” he said.
Julie Kemp’s book, documenting her and her son’s emotional and spiritual recovery from their personal tragedy, is called “Faith Has Its Reasons.”