Does anybody have any patient near-death experience stories?

smurfynursey · Oct 3, 2012

There are several (OK, at least one) threads about this on the hospice board. I suggest you look there.

Best of luck!

They are fascinating

smufynursey

emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Oct 5, 2012

Had a pt go into asystole twice the other night. Got him back both times He had no recollection of either event. Lights out.

boywork · Oct 20, 2012

yes many times patients have said to nursing staff, who was that lady or man standing by my bed, i wasnt scared at all , in fact they mentioned they were comforted, most off these came form cancer patients, we have had psychics and people with special powers to be that we dont understand yet due to ridicule or fear or a control from the authorities, if you like .

again these gifted people often say they have seen heard spirits, ghosts in the hospitals, or wards.

I have personally seen ghosts as well as my family members and friends too

katiedid53 · Oct 21, 2012

I was working recently through an outside agency at an inpatient hospice unit and I had a patient sitting in the courtyard and when I went out to check on her she said,"Do you know why that lady in the straw hat keeps waving at me in the window?' Now this window was a window of an empty patient room, there was no one in there, so I went and got another nurse and she and I went into the room and turned on the light and went to the window to show her that there was no one there, then I went back out and the patient said, " how can you say you don't see her, she was standing right next to you waving, see, she is still there,don't you see her beckoning me to come?" Then the patient died after this experience.

I also had the following experiences when I was a nurse manager in a LTC facility. I kept hearing the residents (not just the confused ones) say, someone needs to do something about the children, the childrent need to be taken care of. When asked, they would say it was a boy and girl around 3 and 5 years old, running and laughing and playing and they were concerned that no one was looking after them and caring for them. This only happened when a patient would be nearing death even if we were not epecting them to die. Then when death was imminent they would see "the man in the black coat who wandered the halls and into the resident's room." I asked my staff about this and the one who had worked there for a while stated that the LTC facility was built on the site where a man had burned down his house tieing the children down and leaving them to burn in the house, he later committed suicide in jail. The staff said that this was frequently seen by most of the residents who were nearing death even if it was not evident, and sure enough it was true. Then the weekend supervisor said that one weekend when she was at the nurses station she saw the children and they were trying to play hide and seek with her and she couldn't get them to leave her alone and it was creeping her out. I told her that if that were me I would be gone, my resignation would be on the D.O.N. desk and that would be the last shift I would work there. The night staff stated that they often saw the man in the black coat wonder the hall when someone was going to die. We also had a light it the hall that would flicker when someone was imment and when they died. Yeah, I don't work there any more, but not for this reason, I never saw any of this, but I do believe the residents account for what they saw

blueheaven · Nov 10, 2012

I posted this a long time ago on another forum here at AN. This was in the early 80's and cardiac care was much different than it is now. Mr. V was a 59yr old who was admitted to the ICU with a large anteroseptal MI. We kept MIs at least 10 days. He suffered a cardiac arrest and they worked on him for about 45 minutes. The doctor called the code. They were getting ready to do post-mortem care and he got a pulse back. He said he was floating over top his body. He could name the Dr.s, nurses etc. that were there during the code. He even remembered one nurse who made a snide comment about his male anatomy when putting a catheter in. From that point on, he refused to have this nurse care for him.

As I've been a nurse a long time and worked much of it on night shift. I know a few stories!

girlpolice · Nov 14, 2012

When I was an aide working in a hospice inpatient unit, we could often hear a child giggling in one of the rooms. This happened to be the room where most kids and teenagers would stay when admitted. The room was often empty.

I had a patient hallucinate that there was "a tall blonde man" in his room. He was very Southern Baptist and this vision upset him and so I talked him down from that.

-girlpolice

Blackcat99 · Feb 2, 2013

I was with a hospice patient when she was dying. Just before she died a look of "total happy amazement" was in her eyes. It was obvious to me that she had recognized " the being" and was totally delighted to see this" being".

lumbarpain, ADN, RN · Feb 3, 2013

Whatever faith, beliefs or NON beliefs people have I truley deep within my heart believe that someone or something comes to you at the end of your life. You are not totally alone in this world here, although many people may feel that way, you arent. I tend to think and believe God, The force, Buddha, Muhammad, or who ever is there, IS THERE to comfort you on your way back to your REAL HOME.

Enlightenedx · Feb 19, 2014

Whatever faith, beliefs or NON beliefs people have I truley deep within my heart believe that someone or something comes to you at the end of your life. You are not totally alone in this world here, although many people may feel that way, you arent. I tend to think and believe God, The force, Buddha, Muhammad, or who ever is there, IS THERE to comfort you on your way back to your REAL HOME.

That post brought me tears :)

Indeed, whether it is buddah, jesus, mohamed or abraham.. there is someone

Biffbradford · Feb 19, 2014

Whatever faith, beliefs or NON beliefs people have I truley deep within my heart believe that someone or something comes to you at the end of your life. You are not totally alone in this world here, although many people may feel that way, you arent. I tend to think and believe God, The force, Buddha, Muhammad, or who ever is there, IS THERE to comfort you on your way back to your REAL HOME.

I took care of my 89 yo 'ma until the night she died. She only spent a few hours in the hospital as she declined very rapidly. She kept saying " I want to go HOME." No, you ARE at home. "NO! I want to go HOME!"

Who knows? :)

nursefrances, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2014

I posted this a long time ago on another forum here at AN. This was in the early 80's and cardiac care was much different than it is now. Mr. V was a 59yr old who was admitted to the ICU with a large anteroseptal MI. We kept MIs at least 10 days. He suffered a cardiac arrest and they worked on him for about 45 minutes. The doctor called the code. They were getting ready to do post-mortem care and he got a pulse back. He said he was floating over top his body. He could name the Dr.s, nurses etc. that were there during the code. He even remembered one nurse who made a snide comment about his male anatomy when putting a catheter in. From that point on, he refused to have this nurse care for him.

As I've been a nurse a long time and worked much of it on night shift. I know a few stories!

I know someone this happened to. He remembers watching from an outside view point as he was worked on(coded).