End of life nurse shares what people see when they die

A hospice nurse in America has revealed her experience working in palliative care as well as detailing something many experience in their final months alive.

Los Angeles-based carer, Julie McFadden, took to TikTok last year to explain a common sign of death - ‘Visioning’.

According to End of Life Doula, visioning is when dying people believe they are talking to their deceased loved ones. They can also think that they have come to get them, or that they are in the room with them.

In a clip posted to social media in October 2022, Julie said: “Here is my most comforting fact about death and dying. The craziest things we see on hospice is that most people will start seeing dead relatives, dead loved ones, dead friends, dead pets before they die.”

Continuing on, the 40-year-old said that her patients don’t just start seeing their loved ones days before they die - it can happen up to a month before their death.

“We have no idea why this happens,” Julie elaborated. “We are not claiming that they really are seeing these people. We have no idea.

“But all I can tell you as a healthcare professional, who has worked in this line of work for a very long time, it happens all the time.”

Julie said that visioning happens so frequently that hospice workers regularly work to ‘educate the family and the patient’ on the topic before it commences. This is so that they are not ‘incredibly alarmed when it starts happening’.

She added: “And usually it’s a good indicator that the person is getting close to death, usually a month or a few weeks before they die. This brings me comfort, I hope it brings you comfort.”

Since posting the video last year, Julie’s sentiments have wracked up over 48,000 likes and 570,000 views.

The one-minute clip has also garnered over 1200 comments, with many finding solace in the carer's admission.

One platform user wrote: “The last morning my mom was coherent she said she could already see my grandma, who died 42 (sic) years ago. In our culture we believe our dead loved ones come to lead you. We know her mom was there ready to welcome her to the other side.”

A second said: “Yep! My mother in law was telling her sister that their mother was packing a suitcase for her trip and picked out a dress for her to wear.”

“Yep I had a patient tell me his dog was on the end of the bed told me full description and name, told his wife made her smile,” said a third.

A medium headed to the comments section and wrote: “Spirit will tell us in a session they are the ones to grab our family at their time of death so they are not alone during the transition.”

Another social media user said: “My mother would often tell me that she just had a talk with my dad or one of her sisters. Started about a month before she passed and they looked good.”