There have been many shows throughout history which have depicted what it looks like when someone is at the end of their life.
Like Grey’s Anatomy, a TV series that is notorious for killing everyone off in a variety of ways.
However, what does it really look like when someone is about to die?
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An end-of-life nurse recently shared a chilling phenomenon that happens when a person is about to pass, and now she’s expanded her list to include three additional things that are ‘normal’ to see when visiting a loved one in hospice care.
Julie McFadden is a Los Angeles-based nurse who posted an interesting video to TikTok under the username @hospicenursejulie.
She explained in her video that even as medical professionals, they ‘don’t know what’s causing these things, but we do know that they happen often enough that we have to really educate families about them’.
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So, what are the four phenomenon’s what happen before you pass away?
Visioning
Previously, she explained in a YouTube video that visioning was when a person would see a loved one who had already passed away or have conversations with them a few weeks before death.
Calling it the ‘most common thing we see’ in the medical field, Julie went on to say that she gets the ‘most sh*t’ from people for warning family members about visioning as they believe she is trying to convince people that there is an afterlife.
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However, Julie is adamant that it’s a real phenomenon and that she’s ‘just educating about something that really does happen all of the time at the end of life.’
Terminal Acidity or The Rally
Now, if you’re a fan of Grey’s Anatomy, you’ll know what the rally is already by the awful Mark Sloan storyline.
Terminal Acidity is something that Julie explains happens in ‘about 30% of all of our patients’ and is a short burst of energy before someone dies.
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She said: “So, someone's very sick, burst of energy only for a couple days at most, and then they die.”
Even though nobody knows why it happens to some patients, it’s common enough that they warn visiting families about what it could mean.
The Death Reach
This one might be a shocker to those who are witnessing it, but the death reach is exactly like it sounds.
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According to the nurse, this is when someone reaches up ‘like they're seeing someone and grabbing someone or hugging someone’ before they die.
The Death Stare
“This is not when just their eyes are open, because people's eyes are open at the end of life,” Julie explains in the video.
She said: “This is when someone is still lucid enough, and they're just staring off into the corner or some part of the room.
“Sometimes they're smiling when they're doing it.
“Sometimes they're talking to someone while they're doing it, and they will just not get out of that stare.”
The death stare is something that Julie claims is completely normal, and that as a healthcare worker, she won’t attempt to break the stare if her patient is comfortable and happy.
As unusual as a lot of people may find these phenomenons, many in the comment section were in agreement that they had seen these things happen themselves when visiting relatives who were at the end of their lives.
One person wrote about a visioning experience: “About a week before my sweet mom passed away, she said it ‘look at all the angels. Aren’t they beautiful’ it was a moment I treasure.”
Another talked about the reach: “My mom reached. She said she was opening the door to heaven when we asked her what she was doing.”
Julies education on what to expect from someone who is dying has also brought a lot of comfort to those who are terrified of death, with a commenter writing: “I used to be TERRIFIED of death. Your page is bringing me inches to accepting it. Thank you.”
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Photo TikTok / @hospicenursejulieTopics: Health, Social Media, TikTok, Weird, NHS