Deathbed visions

Nurses General Nursing

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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?

Wonderful Post!! My grandfather passed away at 92 exactly 1 yr ago today. I think it's amazing that I found this post today, anyway, he had many of the same experiences mentioned above. He kept talking about all the visitors. Now he did have a few friends and family always in and out but he saw his mother and father, and a few good friends who went way before he did. We mostly went along with it, but my Grandmother got a little spooked when he kept saying there was a little girl hiding behing their TV (He was at home, and had Hospice coming, but was still cohearant) she said there was no one there, but he insisted. A few days later my 2 children and I stopped in to visit, and when he saw my 4 y/o daughter, he said "Oh there she is, there is that beautiful girl that was behind the TV." He continued to ask my daughter why she was there, and she just said, "I wanted to see you." and walked out. He just kind of giggled (which was odd because he had been grouchy, and in a lot of pain). I think he died a week later. When I asked my daughter what she thought of what Grandpa said, she seemed to have the wisdom of a 40 y/o and said "oh he was just having some fun." I liked that thought.

perhaps she WAS there behind the TV.....astral projection.....

perhaps she WAS there behind the TV.....astral projection.....

My daughter is advanced for her age, but I don't think her mind can carry her 100 miles away. ;)

Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

Hmmm ok I just had an experience recently and wasn't sure what it was. On the weekend I take care of a 92 yo man. He can barely get around, uses a walker in the house. Let me first relate that a month or two ago this man suddenly started making passes at his caregivers and exposing himself. It was very uncomfortable. One woman quit because she said he was "attacking" her. When she tried to sit on the toilet he walked in. Very unsettling! (only one bathroom in the house)

Ok now on to my dream. I recently had a dream. I dreamt I was standing in his living room and I looked and he was outside in his driveway walking around quite easily. I knew he was dead and was afraid that he was lost and confused about where he was and would not be able to get to the other side. He looked at me and smiled and I quickly ran outside to get him and bring him back into the house. But when I got to his driveway he wasn't there. He had disappeared. Then I was in my bedroom in my bed as if I were awake and had just awakened from this dream. On the ceiling was a black thing moving back and forth and it was him. I said, "Mr ______ you are dead, you need to go now. The black thing stayed on the ceiling but he "projected"? himself down on top of me and I felt a tingling all over my body as I felt his hands reach around me. I wasn't scared. I said it three times. Mr ____ you have died and you need to go now. You are dead now and you need to go. He left and I woke up. I wanted to call the agency to see if he had died but didn't. That night I went to sleep and dreamed again that Mr _____ died. I dreamt I was again at his house and his bed was empty. He had died so he wasn't there. Then I was in my house and running thru the house and all the beds were empty. I kept yelling to my husband to call the agency to see if Mr _____ had died. Even tho my children were not in their beds I didn't feel a panic that it was them. It was related to this man.

So it's been over a week and the man is still alive so I"m not sure what the dreams mean?

I have not seen any of these deathbed visions in pt yet but I am new...bt I have heard of them, several occurences with people reaching out their arms when they die and was told that my aunt did this when she died. She had just turned 40 and died of colon cancer and was completely coherent when she died. Her family husband and children were with her and the pastor from her church and the pastor sang her favorite hymn while she passed.

One of my instructors said that she had experiences where people would see a small dog on their bed before they passed away.

My own experience was during my pregnancy I had a horribly vivid nighmare where I was standing in the corner of a room and in the middle of the room was some "thing" that had a baby by the ankles and was swinging the baby and the baby's head kept hitting the wall and I was trying to stop it because the baby's head was getting crushed but there was nothing I could do. Shortly after that I had an ultrasound done and was told that my baby was anencephalic. (neural tube defect where the skull does not close). A few nights after I delivered and was at home trying to sleep on my couch I rolled over and saw two children al little boy and a little girl standing by the desk the my great grandmother had given me, they were staring at me, they were very calm and peaceful it almost felt like they were sad for me. I closed my eyes and tried to focus thinking that I was hallucinating and they disappeared. That was my second pregnancy where I lost the baby. A boy in the second pregnancy ( which I knew from the day I got pregnant) and although I did not know the sex of the first I always felt that I was pregnant with a girl.

In my teens my cousin who was a little younger than me commited suicide. When my aunt called my house to tell us what had happened, I knew as soon as the phone rang, I got that bolt of lightning feeling and even though there was no hint that he was planning this I just knew it before they told me. ( I wasn't the one who answered the call)

After my uncle's funeral at the gathering at my house all the lights in the room went out for a second even thought they were on seperate fuses and no other lights in the house went out and then I had a dream about him where he wanted me to let his kids now that he was watching over them that he was literally within a few feet of them and would always be with him but that he couldn't reach out to them because if he did he would have finish his journey and give up being able to watch over them so closely. And when his wie died 15 years later ( aunt with colon cancer ) I was walking through my yard doing some gardening and found a picture of her daughter (my cousin) laying in the yard. It was a little baby picture that was attatched to a little gold charm. I had been living in my house for a couple of years and hadn't moved anything or been doing any reorganizing and couldn't remember the last time I actually saw that picture, and had not had any family over that someone could have been carrying it and dropped it, it just seemed to appear out of nowhere. I told her daughter about it and she got chills, I figure it was just a way to pass on the message that she is also ok and looking over their kids and figure it came through me because I am more open to those kinds of things and her kids were a little more fearful of that kind of stuff. Or maybe I am just crazy :uhoh3: hmmmmm....I have more stories like this but maybe I should move them to the ghost story thread.....but some of the stuff on that thread gives me the heebie jeebies go figure!

I'm not a nurse or even NS yet, hope to be soon. But I have seen some of these things with family members.

My father was "brain dead", but he was still breathing on his own. He never went to church, but had a strong belief in God. He passed the moment the Priest finished the last rights. It was a very amazing experience.

My husband's grandmother died at Hospice and she would grab at the air all the time. She would also talk in her sleep a lot.

It is just reassuring to me that we are not alone when we die.

My daughter is advanced for her age, but I don't think her mind can carry her 100 miles away. ;)

not a learned behavior.....under the age of 5 it is alledged to be much more common....if this was very recent, ie she is still under that age, ask her....

I have had a lot of experances like these in my personal life. Probly the most amazing was when my Grandfather was admitted about 2 weeks before his death I was staying with him. He would get Sundowners when admitted and would get very upset unless one of us was with him. He was in a state of just praying and crying out to Jesus over and over again. and suddelly he went complete still and quite. This got my attention and I looked over at him. At the same time I felt my Grandmother's presents. I looked at my grandfather and his eyes were clear as a bell and he was very attentivly looking at someone. The I heard him say, "But Why Oma?" ,my grandmothers name. HE sat a listened and then said, "OK I'll be waiting" By now I was in tears and had goose bumps all over me, and I new it would not be long. From that point on that night he no longer called to Jesus but said over and over "I'll be waiting." He did improve and My mother asked him about that night and he looked at her with a beautiful smile on his face and said, "Yes, Oma came to me and told me that It was not time yet to go but that she would be back soon for me." Two days later he died.

Also, Not to long after that I was sitting in Church next to a woman that was like a grandparent to me and I suddenly saw her casket sitting at the front of the church. I could not see her in it because it was closed but I knew it was her. I begain to cry and reached over and took her hand. That afternoon she told me that she new that she would be going home soon because her husband had come to her in a dream. Less that two weeks later I was told that she was gone.

I have also heard storys of people that screamed and writhed at they died that there feet were burning and that their bodies where on fire.

I also had a near death experance about ten years ago. I went into respitory arrest and saw a blinding light off in the distance. It was just a pin head in size but was the brightest light I have ever scene. It was so peacefull and I was not scared. I could see shapes in the light of people waiting on me.:saint:

My best friend died of Lukemia at age 16. Not long after she was dx she called me and was telling about the list that Make a Wish had her write about what she wanted to do before she died. She had put the normal things that 14 yr old grils think of, Drive, date, kiss, go to the prom, get married and of course have a child. At that she told me, " I am never going to be able to have babies of my own, You will have to have them for me and I will be there Godly Mother, their angel!" Of course at the time I brushed it off and told her that if it came down to it I would but that she was going to live and have her on babies. I then forgot about it until that Thurs that I heard the news that she was gone. The thing about it was I was 16 weeks pregnet with my now 14 year old son. I have no dought that she is my sons angel and have seen her in his eyes as a baby and in the times that he has come close to danger but Miraculously came out unharmed.

I Beleive strongly in angel's and that when we die that our love ones that go on before come back for us.

Specializes in ER/Nuero/PHN/LTC/Skilled/Alzheimer's.

When I worked in NH care I saw a lot of people talking to others who were not there when they were "actively dying". Sometimes it was spouses who had gone before, other times it was parents or even people still alive but not in the room with them. Saw it more at night than in the daytime. One man who was in an Alzheimer's unit had a wife still living at their home. She died unexpectedly one afternoon and was found a few hours later by her daughter. The family decided to tell the husband after the funeral, since they were not sure if he would even remember her (he was very late stage). The night she died though, he kept crying out for her and saying he sensed death. The night nurse ended up giving him a prn risperdal to help calm him, and he wasn't a usual pt who needed risperdal.

My own grandmother was coherent up to the minute she died but she would wake up in the night calling out for her grandfather Pa, who had died in the seventies. She told my mom a few times she thought he was talking to her while she was asleep. They had been very close when she was younger.

SOmetimes I dream about her, especially around big family events. The night I had my pinning ceremony for nursing school, I dreamed she came and told me she was proud.

I would like to think we are escorted by family to the hereafter. It's a very comforting thought.

Having been in nursing since 1979, I've seen a few encounters, not all positive of course, because not everyone goes somewhere nice when they leave here:o, but everyone goes somewhere. and could go somewhere nice if they chose to.;)

But the best one I've seen happened a few years ago when I was actually a "visitor" of the patient , not his nurse.

Our Pastor, the man's daughter, and myself were sitting with this gentleman who was losing a battle with flu and pnuemonia due to old age (96).

He was lucid and wished a DNR death if the Lord did not intervene for him to stay in this world.

While we were all sitting talking quietly and he was dozing, he awoke and looked up, reached over and started to fiddle with the buttons on the bed and started to try to raise the bed.

His daughter asked him what he was doing and he said, "trying to get up there to Jesus, don't you see him?", looking up.

She is said "no, Daddy I don't see Him," and the man laid back comfortably and said, "well it's ok, He's not quite ready for me yet."

;)

He spoke to us at intervals for the next 10-15 minutes, not much, just a word or two, answering questions like "are you comfortable, do you want anything," such as that, with one or two word lucid answers.

Then all of a sudden, he looked up, smiled, raised his arms up, closed his and stopped breathing, as his arms dropped back down.

I probably would have a hard time believing this if I had not seen it.;)

in hospice it is not unusual to have patients 'see' and talk with people- unseen by the caregivers. i have noticed that it is often been a 'mother'--as in one OLD lady who was calling out for her mother several nights in a row, when, on her last nite,husband heard her clearly state-'oh, there you are!', and she died. often too, they are talking to people who pre-deceased them,and seem to find comfort in their transition. this is reassuring to those present,and has made believers out of skeptics. i am always in awe at the dying process-and how uniquely 'supernatural' it can be. such a privilege!

lov coronado maybe he was seeing a child from a previous generation who had a family resemblance

and, faeriewand, a black buterfly is suppose to be a soul who going to be in a lot of trouble.

i am not going to sleep after reading all these

I am new here and this is my first post. As a nurse-chaplain in hospice I have been present as many of my patients make their transitions from this life to the next. Many have visions.Most are sacred and comforting. One lady was waiting for a breathing treatment. She said "I can't now- Jim's here to get me". And she died. Jim was her husband who had passed on 5 years before.

Another time I had a 101 year old lady- very with it, a devout Christian- having visions of dark figures at the end of her bed. They were terrifying her at night. Many nights. I prayed for her protection and that in the name of Jesus they had no purpose with her and they must go. I believe that if there are good angels there must be bad. If there is good there is evil. The good was victorious and this lady never saw the vision again and died peacefully.

These are two of the most memorable. It is a privliege to be present at these times.

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