"This Is My Story" - Ben Breedlove Flash Card Video

by Michael

After cheating death three times, Ben Breedlove, 18, finally lost his life on Christmas night after suffering from a heart attack.

But not before he recorded videos of his life and near-death experiences and how at peace he felt when he believed he was leaving the world.

The Austin teenager had a life-threatening heart condition he fought every day as he was growing up.

He had a near death experience when he was four, fourteen and then less than a month ago.

In the video, he shares these experiences, including the bright light that brought him peace the first time around.

Talking about the white light he saw in the hospital when he was four he wrote: 'I couldn't take my eyes off it, and I couldn't help but smile. I had no worries at all, like nothing else in the world mattered.'

It was in his last YouTube video, uploaded on December 18, that he made the heartbreaking video, using a series of flash cards to talk about growing up with the heart problem.

He revealed he regrets not being like everyone else: 'I was never allowed to play sports that my friends did. It kinda sucks that I missed out on that part of my life.'

Death drifted close during a routine tonsil surgery this summer. And at school Dec. 6, Breedlove again nearly died.

His vision then was detailed: Dressed in a suit, he stood in a white room with a mirror but no walls. Accompanied only by Kid Cudi, his favorite rapper, Breedlove felt a sense of pride for everything he'd accomplished in his life.

"It was the BEST feeling," he wrote in one of the signs.

Kid Cudi placed a hand on the teen's shoulder, and he heard his favorite track by the rapper, one with the lyrics: "When will the fantasy end? When will heaven begin?"

The rapper posted this message on his blog after hearing of Ben's death: 'I am so sad about Ben Breedlove. I watched the video he left for the world to see, and him seeing me in detail, in his vision really warmed my heart. 

'I broke down... To Ben’s family, you raised a real hero, he’s definitely mine. You have my love.'

That time, Breedlove wrote, he did not want to be revived.

An emergency responder who brought the teen back said he was smiling before he was resuscitated, said John Burke, a pastor at Gateway Church.

Watching the teen's video after his death, Kid Cudi "broke down," the rapper wrote on his blog.

Ally Breedlove, Ben's sister, sought to impart the meaning of her brother's message to hundreds of family and friends gathered at the church.

"Today is a celebration of the joy Ben brought to our lives," she said, "and it's also a chance to find truth in the message that he left for us."

At the end of Breedlove's video, he holds up two final signs. The first asks, "Do you believe in Angels or God?"

The second says, "I Do."

Burke, the pastor, asked mourners to consider the video's impact.

"Just think about the gift that Ben has left millions of people all over the world," he said. "He put thought into that last video."