Hospice Nurse Goes Viral on TikTok for Talking About Patients' Final Moments Before Death

Dan Heching
·2 min read
26
hospicenursejulie
hospicenursejulie

tiktok

While many people often resist discussing the topic of death, one hospice nurse is trying to normalize the conversation about dying.

"Hospice nurse Julie" on TikTok boasts over 390K followers, with viral videos in which she discusses her experiences around dying people, from how "the body is built to die" to the visualizations many patients say they have before death.

One subject Julie comes back to time and again in her videos is how dying people frequently say that they see loved ones who had died before them, from parents and relatives to dear departed friends and even pets.

RELATED: Broadcaster Ernie Johnson Mourns Death of His Son Michael at Age 33: 'Lived a Miraculous Life'

In one video, she said the phenomenon "actually happens so often that we put it in our educational packets that we give to the patient and their loved ones so they understand what's going on."

"But we don't know why it happens," Julie added, noting that she has seen dying patients talk about seeing their loved ones as much as a month before death, mostly during awake and lucid moments.

She called it one of the things that happen "during the death and dying process that medical professionals like myself cannot explain."

RELATED VIDEO: Oprah Opens Up About Her Mother's Death and Their "Sacred and Beautiful" Goodbye

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.

"They're usually not afraid, it's usually very comforting to them," Julie continued, saying that the patients have said the departed loved ones often have a message like, "We're coming to get you soon."

Julie has even made subsequent videos specifying that the visualizations she observes are not the result of painkillers or medically induced delirium, which she said looks different in patients.

Other videos offer Julie's feelings on death in general, as well as other observed phenomena like "The Rally," or the surge of energy and apparent health the dying person might exhibit just before passing on.