As humans, we assign significance to people’s final words.
Oftentimes, on their deathbeds, people mention their loved ones, confess their biggest regrets and fears, provide unique insight, or share something that will help them face their incoming reality.
Recently, a Reddit user asked nurses to write about the most haunting things that patients have said on their deathbeds.
The thread included plenty of responses from nurses and healthcare practitioners, but also from people who were present when their closest one passed away.
Below, learn five of the most chilling responses!
5 Chilling Things Patients Have Said on their Deathbeds, According to Nurses
- Right before my grandma died, her heart rate shot up to the 220s. As the monitor started sounding all sorts of alarms, she yelled out, ‘“Am I supposed to stop breathing now?!”
- I’m not a nurse, but my grandfather was put in a 24/7 care home with severe Parkinson’s. My mom and grandma had spent four years basically taking care of him constantly and they needed a break for a couple of weeks. They visited him every other day in shifts, but I went one day alone. He looked me straight in the eye and said: ‘I need you to get me home so I can die, I can’t do here.’ I tried saying everything I could to the nurses and my family to get him home without saying what he told me. Twenty-four hours later, he got rushed to the ER. As he was dying, he looked at me and said “Don’t let it bother you” and died.
- I had a patient whose memory had been fading for years. It’s weird, right before a patient dies, sometimes they’ll suddenly appear to be doing a lot better. Anyway, he thought I was his late wife. I played along and just listened to him while he recalled his engagement, his wedding, his first childbirth, and a few other memories. At one point, he says ‘Oh, Irene, there you are! Sorry, you know my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be. Well, thank you for listening to an old man tell his stories. I hope you have great stories to tell one day too. I’m coming Irene.’ Then he passed.
- I’m a former CNA in the dementia unit of an assisted living facility. ‘My dad is on his way to pick me up now’- she said every time I checked on her until she died about a week after it started. While she was still mobile, she would tidy her room, sit on the edge of her bed, and just wait most of the day.
- I had to tell my grandmother that dialysis would only give her another week or so to live and it was her choice to try or not. She was in and out of consciousness at that point, but she was in a clear state for the moment. She asked ‘Will I die?’ I said ‘Yes’. She looked me in the eye, smiled just a little, and said ‘Sometimes, you’ve got to do what you don’t want to do’. She closed her eyes, squeezed my hand, and slept until she passed a day later.
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