Deathbed visions

Nurses General Nursing

Published

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?

Specializes in Neuro ICU, Neuro/Trauma stepdown.

i've known of many in the nursing home to see or hear children before they pass.

Specializes in Too many to list.

Our own beliefs and experiences color what see happening to our patients before death. When I worked in ICU years ago, we received a young man with end stage lung CA, and as part of our report from the floor, we were told that he had had a near death experience. Every nurse reported this to the oncoming nurse. Our patient was very fearful as was his wife. All the nurses believed that he was going to die, and it was no surprise when he developed aspergillosis. Suctioning him was traumatic for all of us because of s/s of this secondary infection. He did not die well. I was an inexperienced nurse then and would have done more to support both of them if I had known more then.

I have seen many patients in almost 25 years at the bedside, who have appeared to be conversing with invisible beings, and were at peace with this. Some, who had initially been fearful, were comforted by these visions. Our acceptance of what our patients may be experiencing can help family members to be relieved of the worry about their loved ones. Being open to the experience, being present for the family and allowing ourselves to be witnesses to the great passage from life into the realm of death is a privilege, and I would consider it to be a rite of passage for those who want to be caretakers to the dying. I always feel a great calm when someone is dying. I know that I am looking into the eyes of someone who is seeing the eternal oneness of all beings.

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.

Kat

I too have felt this bolt of electricity when I was present when a close friend died of liver cancer. It was amazing and I will never forget it.

Specializes in Too many to list.
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.

This a very lovely vision. Thank you for sharing this. I can not imagine anything so wonderful as to be hearing "the most beautiful fiddle music you have ever heard". Wow.

Specializes in Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.

A few weeks before my Mom died I was with her in her hospital room when she looked up , frowned and said " I just saw my mother on the wall". Then she said "But I couldn't have- she's gone". She didn't seemed scared or upset, just mystified.

Two weeks before my Great Grandma passed, she said she would be seeing my Aunt, who had passed away several years before, on my Aunts Birthday. Every time we would go see her she would tell us this in the following days. On my Aunts birthday, she told us she had talked to her and they were going to meet a 4:00 that day. She passed away at 3:50 that afternoon. I'll never forget that.

Nurse KitKat, I also know several nurses and aides that will crack open a window when they think someone is going to pass on their shift to let the spirit out. I've also seen some tie a knot in the bed sheet so the patient wont pass on their shift....don't know if it works, but they seem to think it does.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Geri, Ortho, Telemetry, Psych.

I've seen this too many times to count. I find it comforting for myself and my patients. The only one that scared me was a man who told me I was sitting on his mother. I was just sitting in a chair at the foot of his bed. I just said sorry and got up.:lol2:

I've experienced it a few times...being a new nurse I didn't really think anything about it... until I read Crossing the Creek by Michael Holmes...it tells about things people may do before they die. I had a pt that would pick at the air...I just thought it was from the morphine she was getting...

I've experienced it a few times...being a new nurse I didn't really think anything about it... until I read Crossing the Creek by Michael Holmes...it tells about things people may do before they die. I had a pt that would pick at the air...I just thought it was from the morphine she was getting...

gosh, i've noticed 'picking at the air' hundreds of times and to date, i'm still not sure what it means. i assume (even though we're not supposed to :) ) they have been visual hallucinations of some sort....it's an odd phenomena, for sure.

i'm thinking of an eldery woman who was actively dying. she was seeing all sorts of people who had passed and truthfully, i wasn't thinking much of it (i see this all the time) but still, encouraging 'their' conversations.

my pt was very perplexed about one female spirit who kept on coming and this woman didn't know who this spirit was.

through a couple of family members, it was discovered the spirit was the pt's husband's first wife, who was awaiting this pt on the other side.

i'm not sure why she was there but i sure hope it wasn't payback!:) :saint:

leslie

Awhile back I was in with a resident who had CHF. Her 40yo son had died earlier that year. She had put her call light on and I went into her room and she sat straight up in bed and said to me, "Can you contact my sister to make sure that my son is alright?" I said to her that I would ask the nurse to contact her sister but then reminded her that her son had passed. She looked me right in the eye and said, "I know he died, so has my sister, but YOU'RE the one who can communicate with the dead." She laid back down and continued to beg for me to have contact with her sister. A bit shocked I said, "I can't talk to dead people." And she said, "I KNOW you can, you just don't know it yet." I didn't know what to say so I just excused myself and left the room.

What makes it freakier is that a week later my s-i-l passed away. I had dreamt that someone was drowning but I couldn't see their face. I woke up and shrugged it off as a nightmare. My s-i-l drowned that morning. And when I found out, the first person I thought of was that resident at work who had passed a few days before.

No, I can't communicate with the dead. Just coincidence.

Another woman passed away the day after this happened: I was in with her and she perked up in bed and stared right passed me over my shoulder. She looked all scared and reached up and grabbed my head in her hands and pulled me closer and proceeded to hug me. I thanked her and told her that I had to go take care of others and that I'd be back... she grabbed my hand as if she didn't want me to go and her eyes opened wide then she stared at me and then started looking over my shoulder again. It makes me wonder now reading these, if she was seeing someone behind me.

:saint:

Death Ded Visions,

For those of you who doubt the validity of death bed visions, just continue nursing and sooner or later you will "see" them too! Or at least, you will have the opportunity to see your dying patients ( or family members, or loved ones) transitioning toward Death with the help of their loved ones who have died before them.

As a Nurse with nearly 40 years experience, ( and 8 years as a Hospice Nurse) I can tell you, I have seen it, and continue to "see" it happen all the time. If you have not, just be open to the possibility and you will have the honor to help them and their families demystify the experience.

:idea:

Death Ded Visions,

For those of you who doubt the validity of death bed visions, just continue nursing and sooner or later you will "see" them too! Or at least, you will have the opportunity to see your dying patients ( or family members, or loved ones) transitioning toward Death with the help of their loved ones who have died before them.

As a Nurse with nearly 40 years experience, ( and 8 years as a Hospice Nurse) I can tell you, I have seen it, and continue to "see" it happen all the time. If you have not, just be open to the possibility and you will have the honor to help them and their families demystify the experience.

+ Add a Comment