A hospice nurse from Los Angeles, California, has opened up about the thing that most people say before they die.
Julie, who goes by the TikTok handle @hospicenursejulie, has been working as a hospice nurse looking after patients in their final days for the past few years.
Through her work, she has also taken to social media to educate her followers on the subject of death in order to help dispel some of the fear and taboo around it.
Hospice care is usually reserved for terminally ill patients, in order to provide health care as well as look after their quality of life by also attending to their emotional and spiritual needs.
Julie, who has racked up 1.3 million followers on TikTok with her honest posts, also opened up about what people can expect from their loved ones in the days and hours leading up to their death.
She described the changes that happen to most people right before they die, including changes in breathing, a shift in skin color, terminal secretions, and fevers.
Julie told The Sun about what most dying patients' last words are, revealing that most people say "I love you" shortly before passing away, or they "call out to their mum or dad - who have usually already died."
She added that it is difficult to generalize what happens when people die as each individual is unique, but said that patients that die from natural causes will usually have similar symptoms during the "actively dying phase".
"The symptoms of the actively dying phase include changes in consciousness, changes in breathing, mottling and terminal secretions," Julie told The Sun.
"These are normal and not painful or uncomfortable," she said, adding that our bodies "take care of ourselves at the end of life - the less we intervene, the better".
She also dispelled the common myths and assumptions people make about hospices, revealing that it is "not true" that everyone passes soon after being admitted to a hospice, or that morphine makes people die faster.
"There are some assumptions that people make. Another one that’s completely not true is that hospices kill people," she explained.
When it comes to sharing her knowledge of end-of-life care with her followers, Julie's favorite part about her job is helping the dying as well as their families to deal with what can often be a scary and unsettling time.
She told the publication: "The best part about my job is educating patients and families about death and dying as well as supporting them emotionally and physically. Also, helping them to understand what to expect is another part of my job as a hospice nurse."
Featured image credit: Getty Images
