The end is coming for all of us. If we are lucky, no matter how it ends, we'll have something to say.
So let's discuss last words.
Have you ever thought about it? If you had last words... what would they be?
Bless our healthcare workers—they have seen it all.
RedditorBOBO24PLAYZwanted to hear the confessions of the dying, no matter how dark, so they asked:
"Doctors and nurses of Reddit, what was the creepiest/scariest thing you heard from patients before they died?"
If I say anything in the end, I hope it's happy.
But, you never know.
So one day we'll see.
Keep HIM Away!!
"Had 3 patients all pass away within a week, they were all on different parts of the ward and all asked who the little boy in their room was and within an hour of asking passed away." ~ gingercelticfan
Tonight
"I work on a ward for elderly with dementia. We had one patient who was pretty well in the beginning stages of dementia. She had very little medication and could still do a lot by herself. One day i put her to bed like every night and she asked me when i would be back."
"I told her I had an early shift and would see her in the morning. She looked me in the eyes and told me with a smile that she wouldn't be here. I asked her why not, and she told me that she would be dead. I discussed this with a fellow nurse because it was something she had never done before and decided to check all her vitals."
"Everything was well within limits, nothing raised a red flag. But when I came to work the next morning they told me she passed away an hour before my shift started. I still find it creepy how she could have known she would die that night." ~ Pitiful-Metal754
"Who's that man?"
"I'll share a few with totally different vibes."
"Creepiest ~ Patient looking not behind me, essentially looking through me, asks 'Who's that man?' When I assured her it was just the two of us in the room and that she's safe here she responded 'Ah, so you can't see him either'."
"After I had an ughhhh okay moment I got her comfortable in bed now that she received her pain meds, she smiled and said goodbye to me, as I walked away she mumbled 'I suppose it's time,"'she died about two hours later." ~ nicolewasnthere
“It’s time to die now.”
"My dad had a major stroke and was in the hospital for several weeks. He wasn’t in much pain, but he also wasn’t aware of what had happened to him, and was conversational, but a lot didn’t make sense."
"One afternoon his wife and I were sitting with him when he said, out of the blue, 'It’s time to die now.' We looked at each other and she said incredulously 'Can he do that?' He hung on for a few more weeks, but not very lucidly." ~ mel_cache
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Have you ever worked one of those jobs that paid you to kinda sit there? If you have, you know the joy that comes with watching the entirety of Breaking Bad ...Goodbye
"I'm not in the medical profession but the last thing my sister said to me was 'I've had enough now, time to go, I think' ...she died a few hours later." ~ floydie1962
So much sadness.
Let's discuss more...
Baby Boom
"When I was a student, a dying woman told me 'Congratulations on the baby, she will have beautiful blue eyes' I was confused because I was 18 and I wasn’t pregnant or planning (but 3 weeks later I find out I’m pregnant, and my girl have blue eyes)." ~ __Only_me_
They always know...
"Last week I took care of an older lady in septic shock, transferred to ICU so she could get levophed. She was getting a little more disoriented as my shift progressed and kept saying 'I'm so scared, I'm so frightened'."
"When I asked her what she was afraid of, she said she didn't know. I kept reassuring her that we were taking good care of her. She ended up coding and dying that same day on night shift. They always know." ~ callmesula
She's Gone
"My great grandmother went into a shock when she came to know my father passed away (we did not tell her about it but she overheard a conversation a couple of weeks after the cremation)."
"Within a few hours she had completely forgotten our mother tongue and could converse only in English and Bengali (which she had not practised for more than 80 years)."
"The next day morning she told us that her parents, husband, daughter (my grandmother) and grandson (my dad) are waiting outside for her. She closed her eyes and was gone." ~Jolarpet
Papa Gary...
"My grandma was dying of lung cancer she would always talk about dreams of fishes when someone was pregnant, the only people who knew my girlfriend and I we expecting was us and she wasn’t even showing any signs along with wearing baggy clothes to hide."
"My grandma had told me congratulations and that she and our baby are beautiful in the late stages... she ended up passing about 5 or 6 days later.. Fast forward 2 years…"
"My mom and dad have a picture of that same grandma and my grandpa hanging up my grandpa passed some time before her so my kids never got to meet them... my 2 year old pointed at that picture and Knew it was his 'Papa Gary.'" ~ Remixed_Ghost
Let's Go!!
'I didn’t think this would take so long.' He was gone within 2 minutes." ~ thr0wawaydoc
This is It
"My patient just came into my ward and I went to his bedside to do the necessary admission and administrative paperwork and questions. He had end stage kidney failure and has been adamant on not continuing dialysis, but came to the hospital because his family literally begged him to come."
"The creepy part was this: When I went to insert a IV line for him, he calmly and nonchalantly told me that it's OK if I can't get it in, as he was going to die soon. When I asked him why did he say that, he told me in a matter-of-fact voice that his deceased parents and grandparents are standing around his bed just waiting to help him into the afterlife."
"It was 3pm in the afternoon and the chill that went down my spine had nothing to do with the air conditioning, and said chill intensified when his exasperated wife who was seated next to him told me that he has been saying that for the past few days. True enough, he passed on within a day." ~ jayuscommissar
Peace & Brutality
"I've held the hand of an old woman, she was little more than skin and bones. I believe she was actively trying to die while I held her hand and stroked her hair. She asked me why it was so hard to die and if it was this difficult for everyone. I will remember her for a very long time."
"I sincerely hope she found the peace that she sought. Other patient end of life events have been disturbing, but not in the way that I think this question is asking about. The fear in the eyes of someone about to be intubated. That sticks with you."
"Y'all, have some conversations with your loved ones about your end of life care. CPR is brutal. Consider what you would or wouldn't want done to or for you. Talk about it with your family. Find out what their wishes are. It will make it easier if you ever have to make decisions for them." ~ vanael7
Similar Fashion
"A lot of people die in a very similar fashion, in an untouchable discomfort and pain, every time you ask them to rate their pain on a scale of 1-10 they say 10 and they just beg and beg and beg for help, and so eventually you just start bring the morphine dose up and up, the Ativan dose up and up until that, combined with their illness brings them into a state of unconsciousness that they stay in for a few days and eventually die. It's sad, but I can't honestly say it scares me, I'm confident that in the same situation I'll probably be able to take myself out before it gets to that point." ~ BangkokMohel
Hurry!
"Pre-oping a patient for an urgent, non emergent surgery in the middle of the night four or five years ago. His IV was infiltrated so I started to put a new one in before we went back to the OR. He panted ‘please… hurry… up’ then coded and died." ~ usafutbol5454
"Wasn’t creepy necessarily, but painful and actually caused me a lot of nightmares for years. Context- I’ve been a nurse for 9+ years now. I became an LPN at 18 after graduating early and became an RN at 19. This is a ton of responsibility for someone so young looking back."
"Was working on a medical floor, my first job. Had a 50 year old woman come in as a direct admit from her Dr’s office (not through the ER) with chest pain and started coding within minutes of me getting her in front of her spouse. She came back a few times begging me for her life while attempting to resuscitate her, but after hours of trying to bring her back she died in front of me."
"Dreamt about her begging for her life nightly for almost a year, drank a lot of alcohol to cope. Made me very angry that her physician made the choice to not send her to the ER first because they were more equipped then the critical access medical floor I was working on without a physician. Anyways... I hope her family has found peace." ~ bsn2fnp1
Begging
"I don't wanna die, please. Sounds cliche but if someone seriously tells you that with all his fear and panic and you're the only One this person hold on to then it's fucking scary. You have that first rush of 'I have to do something' but you can't do more. It's straight up traumatic when someone dies sudden, kind of awake before in an emergency situation compared to the sleepy sedative deaths over a few days." ~ Old-Banana5410
Goodbye and thanks!
"A giant bald patient that everyone became familiar with shows up on the fifth floor asking if his family showed up yet. The nurse told him he was on the wrong floor, 'maybe they’re visiting you on the third floor where your room is.' She said. His sad voice answered: They’re not down there. Goodbye and thanks!'
"The nurse called the third floor desk and informed them of their wandering patient. 'It couldn’t have been him. He died this morning.' She looked up and he was gone. We never heard the electronic door behind him open and never saw him again." ~ banditk77
In 20 Seconds
"I once had a patient who was super sick, close to the end, and just chilling the bed as the soon to die do. Out of nowhere they were suddenly, vehemently, terrified. Screaming, saying things like 'oh god no' and 'please no' etc. Then died. Whole thing was probably 20 seconds." ~ TheVapingPug
Restless
"I was a CNA both in hospital and long term care centers until I messed up my back. I spent many hours on light duty after I hurt myself holding the hands of people who had no family to come while they died. But my most memorable patient was when I worked in the hospital."
"We had an older gentleman who was a 1:1 and in full restraints as he died because the meds they were giving him actually made him very combative. Shortly before he died he managed to get out of all the restraints, took about 5 of us to get him in new ones, he ripped out his IV and my shirt in the process. I will never forget him because of how restless he was before he died. It broke my heart honestly." ~ SoilAffectionate492
Shattered
"Clock in the room fell down & shattered on the floor. Patient died 20 mins later." ~ Decent-Sea-7321
Time Clock GIF by MOODMANGiphy
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