Deathbed visions **UPDATED**

Nurses General Nursing

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I think one of the most amazing and awesome threads that led me to this site was the huge Deathbed visions thread from 2006 and '08. It was very intriguing hearing all these deathbed vision stories from hospice nurses point of view. Most people don't really believe in afterlife experiences such as OBEs and NDE's. So hearing all of your stories first hand adds an element of realism for those who are extremely skeptic of things like that. And I enjoyed it so much. It really strengthed my faith in God.

Well, I've been waiting for so long to hear and see if anyone has any more deathbed stories to share. So I thought I'd make a new thread for fellow new members and old ones too to post their experiences with their patients having deathbed visions and passing on to the next life. Whatever story you have, new or old, please don't hesitate to post it here. :up:

Specializes in med-surg, ID, #, ED.

I had dreams about patients saying good bye to me in them and the next day when I returned, they were gone.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Oh boy do I have a lot! Just last week we had a pt start to dramatically decline. He started talking about missing the train, waiting for the train, the train was coming, etc. He just about drove his poor wife crazy. Finally last Thursday he told the nurse- that man came last night and gave me the ticket for the train. I am going to take the train tonight. And sure enough he passed away that night.

This is not about deathbed visions- but a pretty crazy demonstration of timing at the end of life. I had a man in his 60s who had been slowly declining for a few weeks, but finally was really not doing well. It was tricky because his son was overseas, and could only come home for 2 weeks, so we wanted to time it right. So we called the son, we came home on a Friday. Saturday was another son's wedding, and my pt miraculously perked up enough to participate in the whole day of celebration. And then he stayed perked up, for 7 days, then 8, then 9. By now we are getting worried his son is going to miss the funeral (we have a 2 week time schedule remember). But on day 10, pt called all his family in one by one, said good bye, and slipped into a coma that evening. He died on day 12, and funeral was held on day 13. It was truly amazing that this family has this time, and that the whole family was together for the wedding and the funeral.

Another one- we had a 35 year old with down syndrome and heart failure. She was doing very well, but one day her sister called in a panic. The pt had started talking about a cat being in her home. Her sister was sure she was hallucinating. So we went to see pt, and after talking to her it became clear that this was not just any cat. This was Patches, the pt's cat who she had grown up with and who had died 18 years earlier. This pt was insistent on us feeding patches, getting a litterbox, etc. We mentioned to the family that we sometimes see this kind of thing at the end of life, but no one really took it seriously because the pt was doing so well. She died suddenly 5 days after Patches showed up.

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Don't tell me it's only a chemical reaction. I KNOW what I saw and I know what I believe.

why was helen dying in the 1st place? what specific illness? had a dr dx'd her with anything?

it's obvious God's will was to keep her here a bit longer.

i am fascinated how He renewed her.

that's a wonderful story.

leslie

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Specializes in Med Surg,Hospice,Home Care, Case Mgmt.

When it ain't your time, it ain't your time, by Golly!! :yeah:

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
why was helen dying in the 1st place? what specific illness? had a dr dx'd her with anything?

it's obvious God's will was to keep her here a bit longer.

i am fascinated how He renewed her.

that's a wonderful story.

leslie

Everyone standing in the room was renewed that day.

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Specializes in OB, Med/Surg, Ortho, ICU.

When my grandfather was laying in the upstairs living room, he was surrounded by our family and neighbors. Just as he was taking his final breath, multiple people witnessed a puff-like cloud rise from the middle of his chest. He was dying of renal failure, so one could argue that it could be uremic frost agitated from his skin, but no one was touching him.

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Specializes in Home Health.

I knew there was something up one day while I was in the spare bedroom doing home health paperwork. My dog always gets on the bed and lays near me. This day she was restless, she kept walking along the edge of the mattress, back and forth and each time she reached the corner of the bead nearest my sons guitar she leaned forward and sniffed - she did this several times, until she walked to the foot of the bed and put her paw up and moved it as if she was pawing at something or giving a hand shake, while looking up. I think my son was in the room. He was killed in an auto accident a little less than 1 year earlier. I believe!

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Thanks guys for all the responses so far. I read them all and I'm intrigued. But what I'm looking for is more hospice nurse stories about your patients. If there are any here, describe your dying patients last days and words. Usually the result I've read is the person experiencing pure joy or pure terror at their moment of death. Seeing angels, demons, past families, and friends for days up until that time. Describe situations like this if you can please. Thanks!

Thanks CapeCodMermaid! Your story is exactly what I was looking for! Simply amazing!! And I think she was talking to Jesus!

Ag man,

I'm curious, You just joined today and your first post is requesting info about very specific type situations. Are you gathering these stories to include in some sort of publication or project? It's a good topic, just makes me wonder whether there isn't more to why you are asking, that's all.

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ok this does not relate to hospice or seeing the person (physically) before they passed but its pretty good. I was about 12yrs old and at the time I did not know my grandma on my mom's side had breast cancer. I went to sleep and in my dream my grandma came to me saying "Everything is going to be ok, do not worry." Now of course at that age and since it was a dream I did not think anything of it. When I woke up that moring I went into my mom's room, not sure why, and I saw her on the phone in tears. Appearently my grandma passed away due to a heartattack. I am not sure why my grandma came to me the night before, but it is one of those moments I will never forget.

BTW I never did tell my mom this story only because I thought it would freak her out :/

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Once I had an elderly woman (can't really remember what was wrong with her , but I do know we did not expect her to pass away) who kept telling the staff that her mother was at the foot of the bed and she was going to be "taking her away" soon. Everyone just brushed it off and didn't take her seriously. Sure enough she passed away within the next 48 hours after she started seeing her mother.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Here is another of my....."Over the years" openers. So here it goes.....

I have seen and bore witness to many odd "coincidences" over the years. That patient the has one foot in the grave and another one one the banana peel that hangs on for days......until that one family member gets there. I have had the patients that look over to the corner and speak to someone who isn't there, smile, close their eyes and pass away. I have had patients successfully resuscitated and able to recall conversations in the room during the code......the one supporter of the "dying brain" theory, and talk of lights and tunnels.

But there was one story that has stuck with me. The was a 50 something year old male came into the ED after dropping on the golf course. He was alert with crushing chest pain and went immediately to Cath lab. While in Cath lab, it was noted he had severe disease with a high grade L main occlusion......he coded. He was rushed to the OR with CPR in progress. He returned to the ICU much later that night on a balloon pump in critical condition. He spent several weeks in ICU on the pump and was never able to be weaned. During those weeks he wrote massive amounts about his experience, he knew the colors of the monitors in the OR and in what order they were, he described where everybody stood. He talked of walking around the OR trying to get everyone's attention that he knew what was going on. He stated he wasn't in pain but he knew it was him on the table but he elaborated about one particular subject......the black pump man. He wrote on and on how he wanted to thank the "Black pump man".

His perfusionist, one of the best I have ever worked with.......was a black man. :eek:

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

My next story is a personal one......

My Grandma was 90 years old when she feel and broke her neck (odontoid fracture) while cleaning dust bunnies in the corner of her bedroom (yes she lived alone). How she didn't die right then and there I'll never know. After a few weeks in the hospital and a complicated course in the hospital with every complication imaginable......her deterioration was VERY apparent........we decided on no surgery and to bring Grammy home.

Grams had become very confused and fragile in stature, not nature...:uhoh3:. We set up a hospital bed in my Aunt living room and I slept her bedside 24/7 to keep her safe. Please don't think I'm crazy when I say this, but those were probably amongst the BEST times I have ever spent with her. She talked to Aunt's and Uncles, long since gone. She regularlary chewed my Grandfather a new rear end for one thing or another. She thought I was my mother and regularlary called me by her name. In the middle of the night we would have these family reunions as she removed her hard cervical collar and tapped it on the side rail and would ask incessantly....."Shirley? (tap, tap,tap) Shirley....... can I take this off??"

It was like we were replaying her life in fast forward. One night she got me up by rapping her C-Collar....she wanted "2 of them fresh eggs...poached, a ball game and a bottle of beer". Of which I complied. As several nights go by she started talking to my Grandfather more and more (who had been gone for 30 years or so) and they made a date for dinner at the end of the week.

The night before her "date" I woke up to hear her talking to someone on the couch. She was animated and happy but it was creepy because her answers were yes and no and thank you and I will...... When I asked her who she was talking to she scolded me to be quite and to respect my elders. She told "whomever" good bye and went to sleep and for the first time in weeks there was no family reunion at 3 am.

The next night I woke up to my Grammy smiling and reaching out for, I assume, my Pap......she said..."I 'm ready to go home now Dad..." she closed her eyes and passed away......:crying2:

And thsoe last few weeks were the best for me....I got to know relatives long since dead...I really do believe.

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