Kate Hackett
“Famous last words” and other iterations of the phrase permeate our culture — as a joke, sure, but there’s also a morbid fascination with what people say as they shuffle off our mortal coil. We believe that perhaps, just perhaps, there’s a connection to a realm beyond our own and that the dying can see it. Maybe they can give us a glimpse, a spark of hope, that this life isn’t all we have.
ProcaineForTheSoul asked Reddit:
“Doctors & Nurses of Reddit, what was the creepiest last words you heard from a patient right before they died?”
And the people of Reddit delivered. Let’s check out some of the most haunting.
1. This is nothing.
Not a doctor but I overheard an old lady whisper this to her old husband dying of kidney problems.
“You are going to beat this, you got away with murder, this is nothing'”
2. Lost
“But I don’t know how to get there…” Grandpa in hospice. Hadn’t spoken in days. Died about 2 hours later.
3. Why?
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 died were “why is this happening to me?” It still haunts me years later.
4. Got comfortable.
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 died 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 die.
5. What day is it?
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.
6. An angel
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 died the next morning. It really messed with me.
7. No eyes
My grandfather on his deathbed said “they have no eyes,” still give me chills.
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8. A smile
My dad fell into unconsciousness around noon. We managed to get him into bed and he responded with a hand squeeze when I said “I love you.” We watched and waited the rest of the day. Around 3:00 am his breathing changed and as his breathing become more and more labored he bolted upright, eyes wide open, looked at his wife, my sister, them me. Smiled, exhaled, and died.
9. Please
My first hospice case. She was on morphine and started mock smoking. She looked at me, took my hand and said “please” in the most pleading voice I’ve ever heard. I sat with her body until the corner arrived. She has no friends or family. Only her lawyer showed up. I’ve only done one hospice case since.
10. They know
“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.
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11. F*ck You
Cardiac ICU: Had a gentleman who was DNR on comfort care. He was demented and was cursing like a sailor. He seemed to have moments of clarity and would ask to see his brothers (who were both passed).
After a particularly worrisome heart rhythm, he went back into a Sinus tachycardia and look me in my eyes and said “Hey, whats your name?”
“Kabc”
“What do you do here?”
“I’m a nurse.” After this, he was quiet for some time… then he said…
“F-ck you.”
And then he died about 20 minutes later.
12. Oh NOoooOoo.
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 was dying of primary liver cancer. Super unusual, aggressive, and terminal. He was angry at the universe. His family was there to comfort him, but he literally spit 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 chillout 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 dying 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 to the left, and got the most horrific look on his face as if he was looking at something we couldn’t see, and horrifed, like in a bad movie, his face contorted, and he screamed with his last breath, eyes wide, “Oh shit, oh shit, OH NOOOOOOO!!!!”, then made a gutteral noise and promptly fell back into the bed and died. 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.
13. Bob
My grandma died in 1989 my grandfather (Bob) died 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”?
14. Waiting
My mom was watching over my great-grandfather in the hospital. He’d been unresponsive for a day or so, when suddenly he said: “It’s about damn time you got here! I’ve been waiting!” And then he died.
15. Why are you here?
I found one of my “comfort measures only” patients standing at the side of his bed. It surprised me because he had been mostly unresponsive during my shift. I helped him back into bed and he asked me why all these people were in his room. He suddenly became quite again and I noticed he wasn’t breathing. He was a DNR so there wasn’t anything to do to try to bring him back. Looking back he may have been talking about me and the CNA that was helping me get him back into bed, but who knows what or who he was seeing the last minutes of his life. Still creeps me out a little when I think about it.
16. Kill me
DNR patient was on comfort cares. Was on a high dose of morphine and hallunating. She would alternate between grasping for things not there and trying to climb out of bed. She was too unsteady to walk so my job was to sit in the room and make sure she was safe. She tried to get up and I went to ask her what she needed. She grabbed my arm and pulled me down towards her face and said, very angrily, “kill me”. That one fucked with me for awhile.
17. Old Gray Mare
Checked in on a patient before the end of my shift and she was in good spirits, had been joking with me the whole time. Her condition was tenuous (new trach) but she had been positive throughout. I asked how she was doing and she replied by singing “The old gray mare ain’t what she used to be” and wished me a good night.
I came in the next morning and she had coded and died overnight.
18. You’re free
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 died.
19. He knew.
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 foetal 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 die’. He repeated this a few times to me.
He arrested literally as the Drs walked in and he died on the side he’d been refusing to turn to. I’m convinced he knew.
20. She knew!
Back when I was a cna this one resident fell off a bike for exercise in pt and seized, they came to and became lucid and said I think I’m dying but everyone in the room assured her that wasn’t going to happen, she seized up and was dead within minutes.
