When You Die Podcast with Penny Sartori
Throughout the course of my nursing career, I saw many deathbed experiences, end-of life-experiences. I witnessed people as they were dying, communicating with someone I couldn’t see. But clearly, they were having this conversation. And very often the patient, before they died, became very calm. When they were having these conversations, you might see smiles appearing on their faces. And they looked quite comfortable where they were. And I think I was exposed to that on my very first day as a student nurse. In fact, I can remember when I was on the morning shift, and the night nurse was handed over to us. And she casually remarked the man in bed six is going to be dead by the end of the morning. He’s been talking to his dead mother since three o’clock in the morning. And I thought they were trying to wind me up because it was my first day. But I went out to this man’s bedside. And, indeed, I did witness him communicating with someone I couldn’t see. And then he had this big smile on his face and his arms outstretched. He had such a lovely smile there. And then he just lay down, closed his eyes as if he’d gone to sleep, but he died at that point. – Penny Sartori