Deathbed visions

[SCRN1]

Have you taken care of any patients who've had any?

The first time I had a patient who was apparently having one was a lady who kept looking straight ahead at the wall & having conversations with someone named Mary that no one else could see. Come to find out from her adult son, Mary was his aunt who was deceased. The patient died a few days later.

Another one was recently. She was an elderly lady who was so weak, she could barely speak and definately was unable to assist us when we would turn her from side to side. Well, while we were all sitting in the nurses station charting and it was quiet, we heard her talking. Her room was beside the nurses station and we kept the door open. We all looked and the lady was SITTING UP IN BED and talking loud enough that we could hear from outside the room. When asked who she was talking to, she said it was a little girl dressed in white who keeps coming to see her. A little while later, the lady was back the way she was before she had that visitor we couldn't see. We told her niece about it the next morning when she came to visit and she said several of their family members have also talked of a little girl dressed in white coming to see them soon before death. That lady also died a few days later.

Neither of these patients had been medicated with anything that would cause hallucinations and neither were confused patients. I've heard of other nurses who've seen these kinds of things happen. Have you?

[lisacsu84]

i haven't had this happen with patients but the same exact thing happened when my grandpa died. He was not with it at all, having trouble breathing, then all of a sudded he sat straight up with strength he definitley did not have stared at the wall smiled than layed back down and died with his whole family around him. It was very strange but kinda cool because he seemed happy

[txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN]

I have had several patients that have talked to various people while passing but the one that really creeped me out was...I had a elderly lady that had been totally comatose for days and she woke up ( like some patients do right before death) but she reached her arms up to the ceiling and said Jesus is here to get me , then she died....I had a overwhelming feeling come over me and had to leave the room... It was a powerful moment..

[Simplepleasures]

While checking on a frail elderly lady in the dying proces, I leaned over her bed to get a better look and she opened her eyes ,looking very puzzeled,said" Where was I just now?" she did not seem upset, but merely confused as to where she had been. Whoa that really took me aback and all I could answer was "youv'e been here, with me".She was adamant that she had been "somewhere", I asked her to describe it, all she answered was " I dont know but it was nice".That was the only time I experienced this sort of thing with dying patients.It was especially odd because she had been unresponsive all shift.She lapsed back into unconsciesness and died several hours later.

[Selke]

I was dying from complications from a spinal fusion when I was 14 and for 3 days and nights saw my dead grandparents and various other dead people, most of them not benign -- everything that had terrorized me to that point in my life manifested in a demonic form to me, which nobody else could see. I also saw a few other things of great beauty, such as a white horse that I wanted to ride away on, that gave me hope. When I thought I was actually dying, after leaving my body several times, I "woke up" from immersion in this other world, and started to turn the corner and heal. I believe people do see things when they are between two worlds, invisible to us in our ordinary mental states. Many other cultural and religious traditions than the empiric western worldview acknowledge this.

[txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN]

wow!!!

I was dying from complications from a spinal fusion when I was 14 and for 3 days and nights saw my dead grandparents and various other dead people, most of them not benign -- everything that had terrorized me to that point in my life manifested in a demonic form to me, which nobody else could see. I also saw a few other things of great beauty, such as a white horse that I wanted to ride away on, that gave me hope. When I thought I was actually dying, after leaving my body several times, I "woke up" from immersion in this other world, and started to turn the corner and heal. I believe people do see things when they are between two worlds, invisible to us in our ordinary mental states. Many other cultural and religious traditions than the empiric western worldview acknowledge this.

[annmariern]

my brother in his final hours saw my uncle. A person he wasnt close to, but had died in the same hospital a year earlier. He was surprised but happy about it. If he had seen my/our mother I would think hallucination. But this was just out of the blue. When he finally died, I was there and told him he better be there for me; quite sure he will.

[ShayRN]

Too tired to print up all I have seen in my very short time as a Hospice nurse. Will say this, our medical director just posted a note reminding us "be very careful what you say when the dying are talking to angels, they may be listening to you too."

[mommy2boys]

When my grandmother was dying from cancer, she would talk to family members that had already passed in her sleep.

Erin

[moongirl]

My husband's grandpa was sitting in a rocking chairon the front porch tapping his foot and smiling, said ' isnt that the most beautiful fiddle music you have ever heard" no one else heard or saw anything and he insisted there was a couple of men playing the fiddle right there in the front yard. WHen it ended, he was smiling happy and went to bed and died that night in his sleep.

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

Frequently. In our palliative care, we see many patients who see relatives or visions before they pass. I can't say I've ever seen a patient upset about it other than if they were trying to reach the person and couldn't.

I witnessed several that were very comforting to the patient. But...I have experienced one that was very upsetting to everyone.

An elderly lady who was comatose, terminal CA, she was so frightened. She said there were babies everywhere and they were trying to kill her. Turns out she had been a backwoods abortionist in her young years in Georgia. We didn't know if she was having hallucinations or if she was getting a sample of what was to come but it was creepy. She died within 24 hours.

[nurse kitkat]

Too tired to print up all I have seen in my very short time as a Hospice nurse. Will say this, our medical director just posted a note reminding us "be very careful what you say when the dying are talking to angels, they may be listening to you too."

I worked for five years in a high care aged care facility that use to be an old country hospital - the building would have been close to 90 years old. One evening a lady who was in the early stages of dementia refused to eat all of her dinner, telling me that she had to keep some food aside to feed the two children that had come into her room the night before. I didn't think too much of this thinking that it must have been the dementia setting in. The next night she did the same thing again and left half of her meal for the kids, except this time she was really cranky complaining that the 'children' had been naughty ad kept her awake for half of the night.

Two rooms down a frail resident who didn't have dementia was in a real state and scared to have the light off because the night before 2 kids who were covered in bandages had come into her room during the night and stood staring at her while she lay in bed. By this time I was getting goose bumps and mentioned something to one of the other nurses who'd worked their alot longer than me and wasn't at all suprised at what I'd told her. The nurse I was talking to said that apparently back in the early 70's a family had crashed their car, the parents had died instantly and their 2 children had been badly burned and brought to the nursing home when it was still a hospital. The kids ended up dying and over the years different residents with and without dementia had reported seeing them.

I've nursed resident's in pallative care who have had intense conversations with their deceased loved ones - mother's, siblings, children (confirmed by visting living relatives) just hours before passing.

The most amazing thing I've experienced is when a lady I'd been nursing in pallative care passed over on my day off. The next day I went into her room feeling sad that i hadn't been there when she'd gone. The only thing left of her in the room was a book that she'd been reading before she'd become too ill laying on the middle of her bedspread. I put my hand on the book and said quietly 'I'm sorry i wasn't here when you passed, i'll miss you' . As soon as the words were out i felt this bolt of electricity ( the only way i can describe the feeling) hit the top of my head run through my body and exit through my feet. I'd never experienced that feeling before, I wasn't scared and I knew instantly that this dear lady was saying goodbye to me.

Also worked with older nurses who insisted on opening the windows to a patients room when they died so that the soul could leave.

I'm not a religious person, but i have no doubt that there is much more out there than just this life. I've read a couple of great books dealing with these subjects; Life after Life by Raymond A. Moody and Transformed by the Light by Melvin Morse, M.D., and Paul Perry

Sorry if this post has gone off track a bit just find the whole life after death subject fascinating!

Kat

[Jo Dirt]

I witnessed several that were very comforting to the patient. But...I have experienced one that was very upsetting to everyone.

An elderly lady who was comatose, terminal CA, she was so frightened. She said there were babies everywhere and they were trying to kill her. Turns out she had been a backwoods abortionist in her young years in Georgia. We didn't know if she was having hallucinations or if she was getting a sample of what was to come but it was creepy. She died within 24 hours.

Maybe hallucinations stemming from a guilty conscience? I read a book about an Afro-American Alabama midwife called, "Listen to me Good." She was describing being at her dying mother-in-law's side, who used to practice backwoods abortions. The old lady was agonizing and crying, I can see heaven but they won't let me in, I see all those babies...all those babies... really left an impression on me and still does even though it has been many years since I read that book. Excellent book, by the way.