30 Doctors And Nurses Reveal The Creepiest Last Words Uttered By Their Patients Right Before Passing Away
We people have a strange fascination with our last words. Whether we think those who are called to the afterlife, in turn for their departure, receive all the answers or we are simply interested in how a person summarizes their days on Earth, when someone's whispering their final phrase, we're listening.
To learn more about these moments, Reddit user ProcaineForTheSoul made a post on the platform, asking doctors and nurses to share the creepiest things their patients uttered before passing away. And many did. From spiders to WWII captors and the devil himself, here are some of the most memorable stories.
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I don't care that I'm not a nurse, but this was said by my dad to the nurse, so close enough. Backstory: Dad had MS. He'd had it since he was 18. Diagnosed at 20, married my mom at 24, had me at 29, [passed away] 15 days short of 45. Six months before that, he was put on hospice. He and Mom were discussing funeral arrangements, and my mom jokingly said, "You know Tim, the best thing you could do would be to [pass away] on a Wednesday. That way we can have the body prepared on Thursday, the viewing on Friday, and the memorial on Saturday, so more people could come.
The morning we got the call that it was time, my mom, two sisters, and I were about five minutes too late. After we said our goodbyes, the nurse pulled my mom aside and asked if that day had any significance. It's not even 6 am yet, so Mom doesn't even know what day it IS much less if it's important. The nurse tells her it's May 21st. No... nothing is coming to mind.
The nurse told her that the previous day he kept asking what day it was and they'd tell him it was the 20th. He'd look irritated but accept it. That morning, he asked what day it was, and they said, "It's Wednesday, May 21st." He smiled, squeezed his favorite nurse's hand, and was gone almost immediately.
It was Memorial Day weekend, and we did just as he and Mom had planned. And despite many friends being out of town for the holiday, we had over 250 people show up at the memorial service, overflowing the tiny church more than it had ever been filled. To his dying day, he was trying to make things easier for our family. I miss him.
Can't write this without sobbing...but three years ago my grandma passed. She was stubborn as she could be and the hospice nurse kept telling us "it won't be long now...anytime, anytime". So there were about twenty of us, her kids and grandkids, her 80 year old sister, standing around the bed. It became quite uncomfortable all of us just standing there holding hands waiting. So finally I went over to her and whispered in her ear that I loved her and it was okay for her to go. She and I were very very close. After I did that my mom did the same thing, then my grandma's sister. After another while my mom said "I remember a long time ago, she told me she figured she would hear I'll Fly Away ( her favorite hymn) as she entered heaven's gates. Everyone kinda chuckled and my 80 year old great aunt a few minutes later softly started singing: One glad morning when this life is oe'r I'll fly away... To a home on God's celestial shore I'll fly away... And without missing a beat all of us joined in as best we could...we were all crying: I'll fly away oh glory! I'll fly away! When I [pass away] hallelujah by and by! I'll fly away...
At the end of the verse of course we were all just sobbing. Not ten seconds later did her heart stop forever. She just needed some help to fly away. Never got to share that before. Thanks.
Last year: my grandfather started desperately pleading for his life with his German captors from WWII.
The doctor present was smart and said in German: "You are free, Herr Caticature. You are free." And then he [passed away].
I worked in a secured Alzheimer's unit and one of my 99-year-old residents rolled up to me in her wheelchair and said, 'can I use your phone honey, I want to call my son before I [pass] today.' I said no granny (what everyone called her) you aren't going to [pass] today. I let her use my phone anyway. After dinner, one of the CNAs asked if I had seen her so they could put her in bed. I said no and helped them look for her. Turns out she just laid down in an unoccupied room and [passed] that evening. I was never more happy that I had let a resident use my phone to call a family member.
Not a nurse, not a doctor, but I'm an apprentice funeral director. We went to a nursing home on a removal and as we were walking down the hall one of the patients got antsy and opened the door to his room and saw us walking with the stretcher.
'I'll see you next week boys.'
And guess who we had to pick up the next week.
My grandma [passed away] in 1989 my grandfather (Bob) [passed away] around 1965. She never remarried, never dated, but she did have a great life.
When she was dying she yelled "Bob Bob here I come.. Oh honey I've missed you so much!"
We always joked that we were glad she didn't yelled "Bob who the hell is that"?
I work in a cardiac ICU. We had a patient who had a pulmonary artery rupture (a rare, but known complication of a Swan-Ganz catheter). One minute he was joking around with us and the next bright red blood was spewing out of his mouth. His last words before he [passed] were, 'Why is this happening to me?' It still haunts me years later.
Not creepy but memorable, old lady few hours before [passing], 'I think I deserve some damn rum.'
Ugh. I was a hospice nurse for many years. Super gratifying job for a nurse, surprisingly. As a 'regular' nurse, you are rarely offered thanks. Hospice nursing is an island unto itself. Mostly peaceful, lots of times sad, often a blessing.
This is sad, but also creepy, and I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it. Had a 20-year-old kid, gang member, who [had] primary liver cancer. Super unusual, aggressive, and terminal. He was angry at the universe. His family was there to comfort him, but he literally [spat] in their faces. Every ounce of energy he had left was angry and mean and ugly. His mom would beg him to lighten up and accept Jesus into his heart. He would swing at her and tell her to eff herself. The family remained beside, in hopes he would chill out at the end.
His last day, hours, moments, he was angry. The family called me into the room, and told me they thought he was going (he wasn't responding, Cheyne-Stokes breaths, eyes glossy, and skin cold - the end was imminent). His lovely mother, in her dearest attempt, whispered to him to go towards the light, to her Jesus. With his [final] breath he opened his eyes, looked at her and said, 'Eff your Jesus!!!' A second or two later, he slowly turned his head to the left, and got the most horrific look on his face as if he was looking at something we couldn't see, and horrified, like in a bad movie, his face contorted, and he screamed with his last breath, eyes wide, 'Oh sh*t, oh sh*t, OH NOOOOOOO!!!!' then made a guttural noise and promptly fell back into the bed and [passed]. Every family member was shaking and too frightened to speak, and I left the room and took two days off. I don't care if I never find out what he saw.
Used his last moments to mess with you all !! Just kidding - probably hallucinating due to meds.
Not a nurse or doctor, but my beloved Grandpa was in the hospital, ill with pneumonia and sepsis. I thought he would recover. He was asking to see me and my family, so I went with my parents, my husband and my two little boys. Grandpa couldn't talk, but he was lucid and was watching TV in his room. He motioned for a pen and paper. He scribbled something on a scrap of paper and gave it to my oldest boy, who was about 12 at the time. It said, "I love you." When we were leaving the hospital, it hit me that Grandpa was saying goodbye and I started to bawl like a baby. Grandpa had passed before I got home. He held on just to see me and my boys one more time.
I still see him in my dreams, only he isn't the sick old man I had known since my Grandma [passed away] in 1977. He is about 40, in the prime of his life. He is healthy and strong, taking long, energetic strides across the front yard of the house he shared with my Grandma for 45 years. I have never known him to look like that. And yet, there he is, popping in to say hello.
ER physician here, had heard many last words from patients, but the creepiest one has to be of a man who was on his last breaths as he succumbed to renal failure. He said, 'I see a bright light... Horses... No eyes... No... NO... NOOO!' as he loudly yelled, at this point he was crashing when he suddenly woke up, looked up, and with his last breath he said, 'I understand...' and he [passed].
We know in the medical field that these situations are provoked by a cascade of neurotransmitters in disarray due to tissue and organ failure, but I sometimes have my doubts and perhaps we are seeing more than we are lead to believe.
Paramedic:
17 y/o female, car crash: "Please, please, please...don't tell my parents I was drinking."
"You're not gonna believe this..."
Talk about a cliffhanger. Can't wait for season 2 of Old Man With Heart Failure.
My grandfather on his deathbed said "they have no eyes", still give me chills.
Came into an early shift and was handed over a patient who'd been very anxious and had a panic attack overnight. He was anxious all morning, but obs all fine, ecg fine, and so I just asked someone to sit with him to keep an eye on him/reassure him for me. He gets worse, really panicky, heavy breathing, he's on his side in the fetal position. Drs will be in in 10 minutes, so I tell him I'll get them to him as soon as they come in but ask if he'll lie on his back for me to help his breathing. He tells me he won't make it until they get here and that he won't face the other way. Obs still all fine at this point, but he's more agitated so again I suggest he move position for comfort and that's when he says 'I won't make it until the Drs get here. If I turn to face the other way I'll [be gone].' He repeated this a few times to me.
He arrested literally as the Drs walked in and he [passed] on the side he'd been refusing to turn to. I'm convinced he knew.
He may well have been aware of additional pain or problems caused to him if he was put on another side (due to other health issues) and how that would have made it harder for him for various reasons. Of course there is a good chance he knew. What is most upsetting is that they didn't listen and put him on the side he refused to turn to. That's not good.
Not a doctor or nurse, but my grandfather was on hospice care at home and for 2 days he told us that he had to go with "the little red-haired girl." We didn't know what he was talking about.
When he [passed away], we cleaned him up and called the hospice nurse on duty, who came right over. I happened to be the one to answer the door and there she stood: 5 foot 2 or so, with gorgeous blue eyes and the most beautiful red hair you've ever seen. I couldn't even manage "hello", but my grandmother looked around me and said very cheerfully "Please come in, he's been waiting for you."
I had an old lady flag me down in the hallway a few days before she [passed] and with her emaciated face and bulging eyes, she said, 'You know where I'm going.' I asked her what she meant and she repeated herself. 'You know where I'm going when I [pass]. And it ain't up.' I was taken aback and asked her if she wanted to talk with the priest we have on staff. She shook her head and said, 'It's too late for that.' A few days later, she was eating her supper and started screaming. She yelled, 'Fire! Fire! There's fire everywhere!' She [passed] a few hours later, quite suddenly. I didn't sleep that night and I really hope her soul found some rest.
Surgeon here. Not sure if this is 'creepy,' but a man on his kept repeating 'the body is in the woods next to the oak tree' over and over until he passed.
The police were notified and they did search some woods behind the man's house, but never found anything.
Could have been in any woods, not just the ones nearby. Though people are also often on a lot of medication and hallucinate at the end so could have been that.
I'm a nurse and was previously working at an assisted living community on the dementia/Alzheimer's unit. My very favorite patient had been declining pretty steadily, so I was checking on him very frequently. We would have long chats and joke around with each other, but in the last two weeks of his life, he stopped talking completely and didn't really acknowledge conversation directed at him at all. I finished my medication rounds for the evening and went to see him before I left. I told him I was leaving for the night and that I'd see him the following day, and he looked me in the eyes and smiled SO genuinely and said, 'You look like an angel.' I thought it was so sweet because he had not seemed lucid in weeks.
He [passed] the next morning. It really messed with me.
"But I don't know how to get there..." Grandpa in hospice. Hadn't spoken in days. [Passed] about 2 hours later.
Nurse here - had a patient come into the ER with shortness of breath. He started deteriorating in the ER, and then quite rapidly on the transport up the ICU.
We got him wheeled into his room, replaced the ER lines and tubes with our own, and transferred him from the transport stretcher to his ICU bed.
He actually did most of the transfer himself. He didn’t say anything, but just before he [passed] he pleasantly adjusted his own pillow, laid his head down, and then his eyes went blank. This man just made himself comfortable before laying down to [pass away].
I may have told this one before - this is how I remember it.
It was years ago, I was a junior resident. I didn't know the patient all that well, but got called up to get her paperwork ready for discharge. (She was an otherwise healthy 96 or so, had a palliative colon resection for cancer, something, something).
I went to her room to do a last wound check and DC a JP drain and she kept talking about how she was "going home to Bill*"
Her son pointed out that she's usually mentally very sharp, but Bill was her husband who had [passed away] years ago. He reassured her, "No, mom, dad is gone. We're just going back to the house."
She insisted. "No, I'm going to him. He came to see me this morning and said he's taking me home."
Whatever, I guess? Son said she was otherwise at baseline - it was the first and only weird thing she said - vitals and labs looked good, so we progressed along the DC pathway.
Not even a few minutes later the Code Blue got called to her room. She was Don't Code, so we didn't do anything, but it was like, "WTAF, I guess Bill really was coming for her." Her son was surprisingly OK with how this played out.
This one chilled me for awhile.
*Names changed to protect the innocent...and let's face it, it was like 10 years ago and I don't remember anyway.
I'm working on my mother's Eulogy for tomorrow's wake. I'm going to go into detail for anyone that is smoking because I think it's something you should reconsider.
My mom was diagnosed with Terminal Lung and Pancreatic Cancer, mass had developed around her vocal cords and made it hard for her to speak. She smoked all of her life, and it finally caught up with her. It attacked her quick, from time she was diagnosed, to time she passed away, it was less than 2 weeks. First she lost her voice, then she had difficulty breathing, became weak, she couldn't walk too far, then she could only walk a little, then nothing at all, she had trouble eating. The night she [passed away] I let her smoke her cigarette, (dr said it didn't matter anymore) and my sister and I took mom into her bed and I knew as did my sister, it was the last time, we spent a few hours with her, holding her and I got up, lost it a bit, and my mom said "Don't be sad" loudly with all her might.
I was fortunate to be with my mother at that time, she was due to have hospice that Monday but she did not make it, lung cancer kills quickly. I hope none of you have to deal with that, consider it that next cigarette, it's just a matter of time. Well enough preaching.
I too lost parents (father & mother) to lung cancer directly caused by smoking... it isn't a pleasant thing to experience or watch. My father died in 9 months after being reduced to an emaciated prisoner-of-war appearing person; mother died in 5 weeks after diagnosis with the cancer wrapped around her throat, windpipe, and aorta, but more than likely due to starvation since she couldn't eat any longer.
My Grandfather was fading fast, but he smiled at me and said "Dar Dar, I can't hang around, your grandma needs me to paint the house". He [passed away] a few minutes later. My grandma had been dead a few years.
Had a patient who had a tracheostomy have a full-on panic attack, was setting off her alarms. She could still write as a form of communication. She wrote to me that there were some black figures in her room (floating above her and on the ceiling) and she drew me this devilish, creepy picture of what she saw. Coded about an hour later.
I had a patient in my first week of being on a hospital floor as a CNA. She was really sweet and wanted to know all about my nursing school. Right before she went to bed, I helped her move from the chair in the room. She jokingly danced with me for a few seconds, humming an old tune before sitting on the bed. She thanked me as she drifted off to sleep. "Don't worry. It will be okay." Referring to my trepidation about the new job, I assume.
She was scheduled to go home and [passed away] from a complication of medications about four hours later.
The first song on the radio that morning as I got in my car was Shut Up and Dance. .... yeah that messed with me for a looong time.
'Get home safe, little one.'
It wasn't what he said - he said the same thing to me any time I had him as a patient for the evening. It was how he said it. He gave me this look and pause like he knew. The DNR's in my experience always know when it's time. It's creepy.
Having lost several elderly relatives I'd say most seemed to know they were at that point. I don't personally find that creepy.
'The devil has been in my room all night, but don't worry, God is with you.' This man had like the worst [end] ever, too. He had a horrendous seizure and [passed] with his eyes wide open and had a horrible grimace on his face. He had also been yelling all night about the 'devil' and saying over and over, 'Get out of here! This building's gonna blow!'
Imagine being an angel or guide or dead relative and having the person you’re meant to escort to the other side refer to you as Satan 😂 😂
Note: this post originally had 68 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
The word is "die." "Die" is not a curse word. Let's not muddle up the English language any further!
BP: posts a whole article about death. Also BP: proceeds to censor every single mention of the words "die"/"death". WTF is going on, why are we censoring normal words now???!!
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DEATH (as Sir Terry Pratchett might have typed it). It's death. We die. It's called death. You pass, you move on, you (fill in euphemism). It's okay. We can handle the word.
"It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life." Last Continent, T.P.
Load More Replies... 2 days before my brother passed from heart failure I was visiting him at home and sitting by his bed. He waited until our mum left the room and then his eyes just lit up so brightly and he said "don't cry when I die little sister." I was 46 yrs he was 56 but I was always his little sister. I wish I could describe the serenity and peace in him adequately, because of that light in his eyes I really couldn't cry it has calmed and comforted me so much over the years.
interesting stories, and I am sorry for all of these peoples' losses. however I gotta say that it's really distracting that Bored Panda censored the word "die"... I just...why?
On an entire thread about dying. I could see it being changed on a light hearted thread about something completely unrelated where mention of death might upset someone unexpectedly. The topic of this collection of stories is directly related to the moment someone died. The words "died" "dead" "death" "dying" being used should not be surprising or offensive to anyone choosing to read this.
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Death itself isn't scary at all. Sometimes the trauma that accompanies it is really difficult. Sometimes people are confused because of the meds. I've had the rare misfortune and privilege to witness a lot of death in person, some traumatic, some sudden and unexpected, quite a few hospice related, and so on. The bad ones are where the pain is not managed prior to death and it's the fear caused by the pain that is horrible. Where there is no pain, even in really bad circumstances, there is always a moment where someone seems to know that they are going and they let go. Death doesn't happen to them, so much as they decide to go with it. It's hard to explain. The older and more peaceful the person is, the more comfortable they seem to get with the idea. I wish I had a way to inject what I have seen into other people's minds to relieve them of this terrible fear of the only certain thing of our whole lives.
When my mom was dying I would always call the last thing at night, about 11:15. I called to ask how she was doing. My mom's bed was right by the nurse's desk in the room. The young nurse said she didn't think she would make it through the night. Was I coming? I said I would be right there. Not something usual in our family. My parents had always said they didn't want the other2 of us there to see them take their last breath. She said to me "OK, I'll see you in 20 minutes then." It turned out she had been with my mom when I called & no reason to believe it would be right then. When she hung up she couldn't hear my mom's breathing anymore. I realized, she heard I was coming. Nope. Not going to have me there to see her take her last breath. She was outta there.
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My grandmother’s last words were “whatever you girls do, look after your teeth”. Good advice, in my opinion. She had terrible teeth and ended up with a full set of dentures and absolutely hated them.
Because some fool does not believe that people can cope with the word "die." I have never seen anything so absurd in my life. This is *not* the direction that language should go.
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When i was at college i got a weekend and nights job in a nursing home as a care assistant.. lots of stories from that time (like i was only yesterday telling my missus of Eddie, an alcoholic who used to drink all the other resident's perfume and aftershave for the alcohol content and how much he'd have loved all the high alcohol handwashes these covid days).... but my fave memory is of an old irish woman called Mary who was 99 and sat up one day and said 'oh bugger'... and then passed away. Oh bugger indeed, Mary. Oh bugger indeed.
My brother a week before he died asked me what I thought death was like. He was 15 years old so I didn't think anything of it and just gave him my honest opinion but told him we really don't know. A week later I could tell he had been using some drugs. I was very angry at him and didn't want to talk to him but he gave me a kiss on the cheek and said I love you anyway sis. Those were his last words to me. He was dead of the drug overdose in the morning. The only thing I can be grateful for was that those were our last words but I will be forever mad at myself that I said nothing back to him.
I was in a nursing home with some friends singing carols in the hallway. A man in bed in a room motioned to me to come to him. I did and he asked what we were doing. I told him we singing about Jesus and Christmas. With tears he wept and said "God could never forgive me for all I have done." I assured him God would and we prayed together . He was relieved and when I left he had a peaceful look and smile. The next day I came back to visit him but he had died in the night.
On my grandpas last day, my Nana, my mother, and myself were sitting with him around his hospital bed. At one point he opened his eyes and looked around in a panic, my mother threw herself on him and said "I can't watch, I'm scared". He calmed down, and slowly said, "it's okay. I'm okay". Ten minutes later I took mum down the hall to get some water, and while we were gone for that 5 minutes, he passed. He knew she couldn't handle his last moment, and spent his last words comforting his daughter. He wasn't always a good man, but he made up for a lot of his misdeeds in the last 20 years of his life. I truely believe he waited until she left the room to let go.
Happens all the time. There are times when we in Healthcare realize that. We then try really hard to talk the family/family member to take a break and get something in the cafeteria. After they do, the person will often times let go.
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If a person is so traumatised by death that the word “die” is going to trigger them, then “pass away” or any other euphemism will as well. AND they would probably know not to read this thread about DEATH anyway. Please, just stop. It ruins the post
Just before my Great Gran passed, she said she could see the girls sitting in their matching dresses on the end of the bed. The whole family didn't know who she was talking about, but I knew she wasn't long for this world. It's haunted me ever since, trying to figure out who they were, I guess they were ancestors to help her cross over.
Creepiest ever. I was helping another nurse look after this patient all evening. She was in so much uncontrollable pain. Hard life. Alcoholic. End stage cirrhosis. I knew what she looked like alive. At the end of the shift her nurse came to me asking me to go with her to check on the lady because she thinks she's dead, but isn't sure. What? You can tell. I went in with her, did all the checks. I stepped to the end of the bed, taking a long look at the patient. I said "She's definitely dead. But she's still in there". My friend said with such relief that she sees that too, but wasn't sure. I cannot explain it. She was still in there, but oh so definitely dead. As we left my friend told the oncoming nurse to get the lady to the morgue ASAP. She's waiting for her family and they're not coming. She won't leave until she gets down there and realizes that".
Not a doctor or a nurse but a kid. My mum left us 6 years ago. The night before she had told my step dad that she was going to die the next day when both my brother and I were holding her hand. Just after that she shared the news that they were upping her morphine and it would place her into a coma like state. Of course I got my brother there. The next day we held her hand, my brother and I. The nurses came to bathe her. Then we returned to hold her hand. She opened her eyes, took one look at my brother, closed them. Opened them again and took a look at me, then closed her eyes. Then she died. The nurses came one by one to tell us stories. The night before she told one nurse "Thank you for looking after me Kelly but I will die tomorrow with my children holding my hand". The one that bathed her said that when they rolled her over, she said "Mum" and the nurse then knew that my nan had come for her. A blessing, it was. She had my first breath, I had her last.
I was a 4th year Med student in the ICU. There was a large family crying over a very elderly man. The leader of the family. He almost died a million times with crazy arrhythmias and he recovered without our help. The chief resident kicked out the family and whispered in his ear descanse, senior, descanse. His heart rate slowed, the family came in calm and he passed peacefully. I was in awe and I swear I can still see him floating out of the ICU with the family at complete peace.
My grandpa died just as the COVID lockdown started. He didn't have COVID, but he was old, an old smoker, and overweight, and also had cancer (I think multiple). It all progressed rapidly towards the end, and he couldn't really have visitors in the hospital. I doubt these were his last words, but he kept asking where everyone was, and why he was alone... he died thinking we weren't there with him... I never even got to say goodbye... It still hasn't sank in that he's gone. I keep thinking I'll get to hear him again... and now I'm crying... great..
In all my years working hospice.... I truly believe the ones okay with their death or see the family coming to get them are crossing over the enternal life. The ones that scream or have a horrible look on their faces definitely have seen the hell hounds coming.
When my great grandfather passed, he was sitting in his chair like always. Looked at my grandmother and said "I love you, Mary Lou ". Then to my great grandmother and said "I love you, Hannah Mae. Your the best thing that ever happened to me. " He simply closed his eyes and passed. He wasn't particularly sick, but lived 18 years longer than expected (had black lung from working in the coal mines).
one of my friends recently committed su!c!de. now i'm crying again.
When I was 15 or 16 I spent the night with a friend of mine. I was going to go to the beach with her and her family the next day. We were going to wake up really early and leave! Being dumb kids we were excited and couldn’t sleep. We were laying there talking in the dark and I saw a shadow of a skinny man with a longish coat on and a fedora on, glide through the room! I was so scared ! I was like “Kerri the devil just walked through your room” we were freaked out and hid under the covers for a while but eventually got over it and went back to just talking and kind of dozing off! Around 5:30 in the morning her parents alarm starts going off! Then seconds later her mom starts screaming and runs into her room! Her dad had died in the night and she realized it when the alarm went off! I will always believe I saw something, his spirit or his energy leaving the house :/ i still think about it often. Almost 30 years later
When we die, we go to either Heaven or to Hell. Do we want justice, where we pay for our own sins? Or did we accept mercy while the offer was still available? (while there is breath, there is hope) ... Jesus died for ALL of our sins on that cross. John 3:16 I realize each person must make the decision themselves. BUT, I'm finding it troubling that so many of the above stories mention terrifying entities without acknowledging the spiritual realm. Anyway, as I said, each person must decide for themselves.
Not super creepy, but still....The last coherent thing my Dad said. (We didn't know it would be his last thing.) I was chatting about nothing to try to keep him alert. I mentioned his brother Charlie. I asked "He had 13 kids, didn't he?" My Dad says, "Yes." He pauses, then says, "Well...that we know about." Uncle Charlie (WWII vet) was a ladies' man.
This came third hand from my Auntie who is known to embellish things but I like to think it's true. My Nanna was dying of heart failure in hospital. She was in a bay with 3 other patients - usual for UK NHS. The lady in the bed opposite my Nan was just talking constantly, nonstop gibberish to anyone who'd listen. According to my Auntie my Nan opened her eyes, took as deep a breath as she could and shouted 'Will you shut the f**k up!!' She passed 30 minutes later in peace and quiet. My Auntie hates swear words so to me that sounds true-ish as she'd never have put it in there but we'll never know as we weren't there. I honestly hope it's true as I certainly wouldn't have wanted to pass away with someone chatting about inane things nearby.
The word is "die." "Die" is not a curse word. Let's not muddle up the English language any further!
BP: posts a whole article about death. Also BP: proceeds to censor every single mention of the words "die"/"death". WTF is going on, why are we censoring normal words now???!!
Load More Replies... DEATH (as Sir Terry Pratchett might have typed it). It's death. We die. It's called death. You pass, you move on, you (fill in euphemism). It's okay. We can handle the word.
"It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life." Last Continent, T.P.
Load More Replies... 2 days before my brother passed from heart failure I was visiting him at home and sitting by his bed. He waited until our mum left the room and then his eyes just lit up so brightly and he said "don't cry when I die little sister." I was 46 yrs he was 56 but I was always his little sister. I wish I could describe the serenity and peace in him adequately, because of that light in his eyes I really couldn't cry it has calmed and comforted me so much over the years.
interesting stories, and I am sorry for all of these peoples' losses. however I gotta say that it's really distracting that Bored Panda censored the word "die"... I just...why?
On an entire thread about dying. I could see it being changed on a light hearted thread about something completely unrelated where mention of death might upset someone unexpectedly. The topic of this collection of stories is directly related to the moment someone died. The words "died" "dead" "death" "dying" being used should not be surprising or offensive to anyone choosing to read this.
Load More Replies... Death itself isn't scary at all. Sometimes the trauma that accompanies it is really difficult. Sometimes people are confused because of the meds. I've had the rare misfortune and privilege to witness a lot of death in person, some traumatic, some sudden and unexpected, quite a few hospice related, and so on. The bad ones are where the pain is not managed prior to death and it's the fear caused by the pain that is horrible. Where there is no pain, even in really bad circumstances, there is always a moment where someone seems to know that they are going and they let go. Death doesn't happen to them, so much as they decide to go with it. It's hard to explain. The older and more peaceful the person is, the more comfortable they seem to get with the idea. I wish I had a way to inject what I have seen into other people's minds to relieve them of this terrible fear of the only certain thing of our whole lives.
When my mom was dying I would always call the last thing at night, about 11:15. I called to ask how she was doing. My mom's bed was right by the nurse's desk in the room. The young nurse said she didn't think she would make it through the night. Was I coming? I said I would be right there. Not something usual in our family. My parents had always said they didn't want the other2 of us there to see them take their last breath. She said to me "OK, I'll see you in 20 minutes then." It turned out she had been with my mom when I called & no reason to believe it would be right then. When she hung up she couldn't hear my mom's breathing anymore. I realized, she heard I was coming. Nope. Not going to have me there to see her take her last breath. She was outta there.
Load More Replies... My grandmother’s last words were “whatever you girls do, look after your teeth”. Good advice, in my opinion. She had terrible teeth and ended up with a full set of dentures and absolutely hated them.
Because some fool does not believe that people can cope with the word "die." I have never seen anything so absurd in my life. This is *not* the direction that language should go.
Load More Replies... When i was at college i got a weekend and nights job in a nursing home as a care assistant.. lots of stories from that time (like i was only yesterday telling my missus of Eddie, an alcoholic who used to drink all the other resident's perfume and aftershave for the alcohol content and how much he'd have loved all the high alcohol handwashes these covid days).... but my fave memory is of an old irish woman called Mary who was 99 and sat up one day and said 'oh bugger'... and then passed away. Oh bugger indeed, Mary. Oh bugger indeed.
My brother a week before he died asked me what I thought death was like. He was 15 years old so I didn't think anything of it and just gave him my honest opinion but told him we really don't know. A week later I could tell he had been using some drugs. I was very angry at him and didn't want to talk to him but he gave me a kiss on the cheek and said I love you anyway sis. Those were his last words to me. He was dead of the drug overdose in the morning. The only thing I can be grateful for was that those were our last words but I will be forever mad at myself that I said nothing back to him.
I was in a nursing home with some friends singing carols in the hallway. A man in bed in a room motioned to me to come to him. I did and he asked what we were doing. I told him we singing about Jesus and Christmas. With tears he wept and said "God could never forgive me for all I have done." I assured him God would and we prayed together . He was relieved and when I left he had a peaceful look and smile. The next day I came back to visit him but he had died in the night.
On my grandpas last day, my Nana, my mother, and myself were sitting with him around his hospital bed. At one point he opened his eyes and looked around in a panic, my mother threw herself on him and said "I can't watch, I'm scared". He calmed down, and slowly said, "it's okay. I'm okay". Ten minutes later I took mum down the hall to get some water, and while we were gone for that 5 minutes, he passed. He knew she couldn't handle his last moment, and spent his last words comforting his daughter. He wasn't always a good man, but he made up for a lot of his misdeeds in the last 20 years of his life. I truely believe he waited until she left the room to let go.
Happens all the time. There are times when we in Healthcare realize that. We then try really hard to talk the family/family member to take a break and get something in the cafeteria. After they do, the person will often times let go.
Load More Replies... If a person is so traumatised by death that the word “die” is going to trigger them, then “pass away” or any other euphemism will as well. AND they would probably know not to read this thread about DEATH anyway. Please, just stop. It ruins the post
Just before my Great Gran passed, she said she could see the girls sitting in their matching dresses on the end of the bed. The whole family didn't know who she was talking about, but I knew she wasn't long for this world. It's haunted me ever since, trying to figure out who they were, I guess they were ancestors to help her cross over.
Creepiest ever. I was helping another nurse look after this patient all evening. She was in so much uncontrollable pain. Hard life. Alcoholic. End stage cirrhosis. I knew what she looked like alive. At the end of the shift her nurse came to me asking me to go with her to check on the lady because she thinks she's dead, but isn't sure. What? You can tell. I went in with her, did all the checks. I stepped to the end of the bed, taking a long look at the patient. I said "She's definitely dead. But she's still in there". My friend said with such relief that she sees that too, but wasn't sure. I cannot explain it. She was still in there, but oh so definitely dead. As we left my friend told the oncoming nurse to get the lady to the morgue ASAP. She's waiting for her family and they're not coming. She won't leave until she gets down there and realizes that".
Not a doctor or a nurse but a kid. My mum left us 6 years ago. The night before she had told my step dad that she was going to die the next day when both my brother and I were holding her hand. Just after that she shared the news that they were upping her morphine and it would place her into a coma like state. Of course I got my brother there. The next day we held her hand, my brother and I. The nurses came to bathe her. Then we returned to hold her hand. She opened her eyes, took one look at my brother, closed them. Opened them again and took a look at me, then closed her eyes. Then she died. The nurses came one by one to tell us stories. The night before she told one nurse "Thank you for looking after me Kelly but I will die tomorrow with my children holding my hand". The one that bathed her said that when they rolled her over, she said "Mum" and the nurse then knew that my nan had come for her. A blessing, it was. She had my first breath, I had her last.
I was a 4th year Med student in the ICU. There was a large family crying over a very elderly man. The leader of the family. He almost died a million times with crazy arrhythmias and he recovered without our help. The chief resident kicked out the family and whispered in his ear descanse, senior, descanse. His heart rate slowed, the family came in calm and he passed peacefully. I was in awe and I swear I can still see him floating out of the ICU with the family at complete peace.
My grandpa died just as the COVID lockdown started. He didn't have COVID, but he was old, an old smoker, and overweight, and also had cancer (I think multiple). It all progressed rapidly towards the end, and he couldn't really have visitors in the hospital. I doubt these were his last words, but he kept asking where everyone was, and why he was alone... he died thinking we weren't there with him... I never even got to say goodbye... It still hasn't sank in that he's gone. I keep thinking I'll get to hear him again... and now I'm crying... great..
In all my years working hospice.... I truly believe the ones okay with their death or see the family coming to get them are crossing over the enternal life. The ones that scream or have a horrible look on their faces definitely have seen the hell hounds coming.
When my great grandfather passed, he was sitting in his chair like always. Looked at my grandmother and said "I love you, Mary Lou ". Then to my great grandmother and said "I love you, Hannah Mae. Your the best thing that ever happened to me. " He simply closed his eyes and passed. He wasn't particularly sick, but lived 18 years longer than expected (had black lung from working in the coal mines).
one of my friends recently committed su!c!de. now i'm crying again.
When I was 15 or 16 I spent the night with a friend of mine. I was going to go to the beach with her and her family the next day. We were going to wake up really early and leave! Being dumb kids we were excited and couldn’t sleep. We were laying there talking in the dark and I saw a shadow of a skinny man with a longish coat on and a fedora on, glide through the room! I was so scared ! I was like “Kerri the devil just walked through your room” we were freaked out and hid under the covers for a while but eventually got over it and went back to just talking and kind of dozing off! Around 5:30 in the morning her parents alarm starts going off! Then seconds later her mom starts screaming and runs into her room! Her dad had died in the night and she realized it when the alarm went off! I will always believe I saw something, his spirit or his energy leaving the house :/ i still think about it often. Almost 30 years later
When we die, we go to either Heaven or to Hell. Do we want justice, where we pay for our own sins? Or did we accept mercy while the offer was still available? (while there is breath, there is hope) ... Jesus died for ALL of our sins on that cross. John 3:16 I realize each person must make the decision themselves. BUT, I'm finding it troubling that so many of the above stories mention terrifying entities without acknowledging the spiritual realm. Anyway, as I said, each person must decide for themselves.
Not super creepy, but still....The last coherent thing my Dad said. (We didn't know it would be his last thing.) I was chatting about nothing to try to keep him alert. I mentioned his brother Charlie. I asked "He had 13 kids, didn't he?" My Dad says, "Yes." He pauses, then says, "Well...that we know about." Uncle Charlie (WWII vet) was a ladies' man.
This came third hand from my Auntie who is known to embellish things but I like to think it's true. My Nanna was dying of heart failure in hospital. She was in a bay with 3 other patients - usual for UK NHS. The lady in the bed opposite my Nan was just talking constantly, nonstop gibberish to anyone who'd listen. According to my Auntie my Nan opened her eyes, took as deep a breath as she could and shouted 'Will you shut the f**k up!!' She passed 30 minutes later in peace and quiet. My Auntie hates swear words so to me that sounds true-ish as she'd never have put it in there but we'll never know as we weren't there. I honestly hope it's true as I certainly wouldn't have wanted to pass away with someone chatting about inane things nearby.
