Sounds like you are trying to do something similar to what I did in my space shooter (in my signature area). When my player dies he is invulnerable during the respawn period for a few seconds.
I ended up using a variable for vulnerable (yes/no) and a set opacity 0 (I used set visibility but same thing really), respawn player (who is set invulnearble but invisible), Wait 3 seconds, set player to visible and then variable to vulnerable. In my damage event I simply check whether player is vulnerable before allowing damage.
You could do something similar just using opacity instead.