Patient Death Experience.

amoLucia · Aug 16, 2015

..... One moment the man was breathing gently and his vitals were barely there. The next he was gone. The nurse who helped me prepare the man's body so his family could come in to be with him said she sometimes felt the spirit whoosh out of a patient's body during death. I've never had that experience, but I think it would be wonderful to feel such closeness to someone/God/the universe.

I am so glad that someone else in the world has felt this!!!

I HAVE experienced this occurrence. Only I explain it like someone has 'turned off the light/energy' for the pt. It feels like I can really feel it when the moment of death has occurred.

I think there's nothing so disturbing to me than for a pt to die with no one there. To die alone ... I will try to stay whenever I can until that moment when I 'feel the light go out'. When I 'feel the energy leave'.

Now from chemistry class there's the 1st Law of Energy Conservation/Thermodynamics where 'energy can neither be created nor destroyed'. We know about EKG electrical impulse from the SA node and sodium/potassium/ionic exchange. It's energy being passed around & spent.

I just think I'm just 'sensitive' to that feeling and when I experience it, I feel truly HUMBLED & PRIVILEDGED in the 'universal grand scheme of things', also known as 'the circle of life'.

(And just as a disclaimer, NO, I DON'T wear aluminum foil undies!!!)

imintrouble, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2015

I'm kind of creeped out by this topic and the way it was presented and I don't get creeped easily.

This thread is seriously messed up. Creeped out to say the least.

I rarely share the details when a patient dies. I owe the patient and their family the respect of my silence. It's not to be shared on a public forum even if nobody knows who I am, or who they were.

It's a betrayal to do anything less.

icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2015

To BSN -RNTXN :

It is a violation of TOS to use a title that you have not earned.

A fourth year student is neither a BSN nor an RN.

Farawyn · Aug 16, 2015

I have cancer. A bad kind. (As if there's a "good cancer," but some do have a better prognosis.) Sometimes I read things on this site that are disturbing to me, as someone who will most likely not survive my parents. I don't want someone taking care of me who has a morbid curiosity over death. I won't need that, and I am sure my parents won't either. They would probably never speak up about it, but I know it would bother them tremendously.
I can assure you if anything happens to one of my parents and the nurse has that train wreck mentality, that nurse will be escorted none too gently out of the room. I may not walk very good anymore, but I can swing a cane like the "Sultan of Swat" could swing a bat.

Like a COB? That kind of bat?

Love you OCNRN.

OCNRN63, RN · Aug 16, 2015

I was wondering about that. I thought I'd missed her saying she'd graduated and taken NCLEX.

CelticGoddess, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2015

I love to hear stories of memorable patient deaths. Sometimes it's just eerily cool to watch the process unfold (not to be a creep about it). Im still a nursing student so I only have 1 experience so far. Patient had stage 4 cancer with mets to the liver, brain, and a completely occluded left lung. Patient was a super goner, but family was in complete denial and believed she would "pull through." Patient finally expired during one of my clinical rotation and I felt SO relieved for her. Such a crappy way to leave this world. Thats all I got so far..
Please, share a memorable patient death experience that you have had.

I work palliative, and I have NEVER found "eerily cool" about it. Sometimes it's heart wrenching, and sometimes it's welcome. But never is it 'eerily cool" And sometimes it's memorable because it sucked that someone so special had to die. A mother who has a 2yo baby. A homeless guy who had no one but his nurses on his side. It wasn't the death that was memorable, it was the patient. They were all memorable to me for one reason or another. I have learned a lot from my dying patients and their families.

Pranqster · Aug 16, 2015

I would not even refer to a dying pet as a super goner or describe the dying process as eerily cool.

Well, Thats you.

Racer15, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2015

My absolute favorite death as an RN was my grandfather. It was awesome watching this "super goner" cancer patient go from driving across town to buy my lunch because he refused to let me do so, to changing his adult diaper because he was unresponsive a week later. It is SUPER FABULOUS AND FASCINATING to watch the greatest male influence in your life reduced to an infantile state. YAY DEATH.

Jensmom7, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2015

I was wondering about that. I thought I'd missed her saying she'd graduated and taken NCLEX.

That's because until a few hours ago, her screen name was "Bea40448".

Jensmom7, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2015

I am so glad that someone else in the world has felt this!!!
I HAVE experienced this occurrence. Only I explain it like someone has 'turned off the light/energy' for the pt. It feels like I can really feel it when the moment of death has occurred.
I think there's nothing so disturbing to me than for a pt to die with no one there. To die alone ... I will try to stay whenever I can until that moment when I 'feel the light go out'. When I 'feel the energy leave'.
Now from chemistry class there's the 1st Law of Energy Conservation/Thermodynamics where 'energy can neither be created nor destroyed'. We know about EKG electrical impulse from the SA node and sodium/potassium/ionic exchange. It's energy being passed around & spent.
I just think I'm just 'sensitive' to that feeling and when I experience it, I feel truly HUMBLED & PRIVILEDGED in the 'universal grand scheme of things', also known as 'the circle of life'.
(And just as a disclaimer, NO, I DON'T wear aluminum foil undies!!!)

Just one problem with this. I'm sure you're very passionate about your feelings, and really believe in them, but someone's death isn't about YOU, it's about THEM.

Death is a very private and personal journey. Many don't want friends and family to hover over the bed, watching them draw their last breath. They don't want that to be the last memory of them.

I have had patients wait until everyone has stepped out of the room before they die. We prepare our families for this, so they know they aren't terrible spouses, children, siblings, etc. if it happens like that.

Dying by yourself is completely different than dying alone or lonely. I suggest to families that they each say goodbye, I love you, we'll be ok, you can relax and let go when you're ready, because the dying can still hear, even when unresponsive, and some people do need permission to go.

Fulfilling YOUR needs when someone dies doesn't do anything for anyone except you, and to possibly inflict your presence on someone who may neither need nor want it as they navigate life's final journey, no matter how well intentioned, is not a good thing.

2k15NurseExtern4u, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2015

I have cancer. A bad kind. (As if there's a "good cancer," but some do have a better prognosis.) Sometimes I read things on this site that are disturbing to me, as someone who will most likely not survive my parents. I don't want someone taking care of me who has a morbid curiosity over death.

You misconstrue the differences between boundaries in reality with the boundaries of an anonynous online forum. Also, if you have cancer, "a bad kind," and you are well aware that there are things on AN that upset you or trigger certain emotions within you, then why would you click on a thread about death when you KNOW it would disturb you??

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Aug 16, 2015

You misconstrue the differences between boundaries in reality with the boundaries of an anonynous online forum. Also, if you have cancer, "a bad kind," and you are well aware that there are things on AN that upset you or trigger certain emotions within you, then why would you click on a thread about death when you KNOW it would disturb you??

Many people don't find the topic disturbing, it's how you word it. You are coming off as weirdly attached to death. Many people have told you.

Again, you cannot have the title BSN-RN in your name if you have not graduated & passed the NCLEX.