I wouldn't put much stock in an article from Newsweek on this topic. Their business model doesn't support in-depth science journalism.
This is a much better scientific discussion of that research, by noted neurologist and skeptic Dr. Steven Novella:
[theness.com]
Dr. Novella hosts the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast, which I highly recommend.
I realize that many people have personal experiences surrounding out-of-body-experiences, but our brains are very good at lying to us, even when we're unconscious. I'm not going to argue that someone didn't experience something when they insist that they did.
But the plural of anecdote is not data.

Having once died for two minutes during childbirth, I have experienced being pure energy. I am happy to report that you are still you once outside the body. It was comfortable and calm. So death does not scare me - just the process of dying. We are energy and energy does not die, it just transforms. I will be interested in seeing how the next stage of energy unfolds.

I think this is a great topic for speculation. I once had a conversation with a person who said, "Well where were you before your were born?" Realizing the question does not make any sense, perhaps asking where we go after death make no sense either. But then I might be wrong.

I think about this often as I almost died last April. One cannot live without blood. Anyway while God has nothing for me I wonder about this. We live within a Universe where much has had to exist in such a detailed manner that it is hard not to think that there may be a reason for this. Perhaps we are balls of energy that hook onto some matter and come into existence, experience what we call life and then move on to some other realm. Of course this is quite egocentric which means for me that there is nothing to it, but I am considering this until I come up with something else. One reason I am here as discussion can bring ideas not thought of.

This information has no bearing on consciousness.
Though all my blood and transferable organs are placed in other living persons would I be in any sense alive? Not in any sense that could be meaningful for the individual. One may pluck a leave from a tree, Did it die? No. Is it going to die, bit by bit? Yes. Does it get any "treeing" done whilst plucked and drying? No. The problem is one of language, not biology. The categories of dead and alive are simplistic constructions, One state being the total negation of the other. Life and death are on a continuum. We don't have a time of total cellular death. We calculate or anticipate the direction on the continuum a life form is progressing. A certain set of signs meaning a point of no return. We call that dead. Not the death of every cell in the brain or body.

+What the study is really saying is that we don't really fully understand the dying process. It simply takes longer for brain cells to die, even after they have apparently stopped functioning. Our consciousness does not go anywhere. It simply stops, although not as quickly as previously thought.

I'm not ruling out an afterlife. I'm not afraid of the prospect of no afterlife because, hey, I was dead before I was born and that wasn't a big deal. That being said, I can't help but find it odd that we're dead for billions of years, become alive for a short time, then die and lose consciousness for the rest of time. Why did my consciousness emerge at this specific time? And why is it me? Why isn't it somebody else?

You cannot be conscious of unconsciousness. That doesn't automatically mean there's an afterlife but an afterlife would be a sound conclusion regardless.

Many hospitals have put a stuffed toy, or an open book, on top of cupboards. Somewhere they can't be seen from standing on the floor, but would be seen if you floated up.
Have not heard of anyone who 'floated up' while they were dead seeing these test objects.
So, seeing the operating room while you are dead is probably a hallucination based on hearing what is happening and your brain creating an image.

There is simply no way for anyone to know what happens after you die because your are dead and can no longer communicate with the living. Unless your believe in mediums. Anything said about it is pure speculation. (In My Humble Opinion)

When your dead your bloody well brown bread !! How can consciousness live on ?? What signs have you seen ?? Something on YouTube ???

Ok interesting but likely to be misinterpreted based on the title. Your consciousness does not shift to some other realm of existence, it just Continues to function until the cells die- like a chicken with its head cut off.