Sen. John Fetterman (D) said his near-fatal stroke completely changed how he looks at death.

People in their middle age talk about their mortality, Pennsylvanias junior senator told Mens Health in an interview published Monday. Ive experienced my mortality, so Im not afraid of it anymore.

Fetterman explained why his 2022 stroke was much more than a close call, telling the magazine, I didnt have a near-death experience, because technically I had died.

It wasnt like seeing lights or whatever, he explained. But it was feeling that everything was being bounded up in things, all coming up through, and I was going to go up to a window into the sky.

While he felt beyond blessed to have survived, Fetterman found himself facing more emotional hurdles during his recovery.

The stroke left the former lieutenant governor with problems processing speech, issues that he couldnt hide while in the middle of a campaign for the U.S. Senate .