I recently witnessed a profound deathbed vision while on-site during a training. An older woman in the later stages of pancreatic cancer, who was under close supervision due to her declining condition, was (understandably) upset about her lot. Although she was declining, she wasn’t expected to pass for another few weeks. I was shadowing an older resident RN on site and we stopped by her room, and we chatted with her for a while; the usual charting and pain management shebang. Suddenly, her demeanor changed completely to one of complete happiness and acceptance. She smiled, gazed to a corner of the room like she was staring through us, and remarked “Oh, thank goodness Randy. I was afraid you wouldn’t show up! I’m ready now.” As I was informed later by another nurse who had spoken with the woman’s daughter, Randy was her husband of 32 years who had passed some years prior. She sat up smiling, reached for a corner of the room, her breathing subsequently slowed, and you could see the life leave her body as she took her last breath and she fell on the pillow behind her. The resident RN who’s been there for about 20 years didn’t even bat an eye, and said this is incredibly common. Didn’t bother to ask what the nurses spiritual alignment was, though now I’m super curious.
I’m just starting on the nursing track and I am FREAKED by this incident. This also spiraled into a major existential crisis, as I was pretty confidently agnostic before. Now I don’t know what to believe. I knew from my professors that people may become delusional and oxygen deprived near death and may report to see things, but this woman was way too lucid for me to be comfortable with that claim. My goal was to make people as comfortable as possible as they slip into the endless night. Does anyone who’s worked with terminally ill patients have any testimonies of deathbed visions that changed their view on life after death? And maybe some words of advice/encouragement for someone who is super spooked by all of this?
