End of life nurse reveals there's one 'beautiful' sign someone is about to die
Julie McFadden, a Los Angeles-based medic and hospice nurse, regularly takes to social media to share her findings from working in the high pressure profession - including a big sign that a patient is ready to embrace the end of life.
She uses the social media handle @hospicenursejulie to demystify her audience on mortality and aims to alleviate 'fear and stigma around death'.
It's something absolutely none of us like to think about, but it comes to us all one day.
And if we get to have our minds put at ease about the process in the meantime, that's something we welcome with open arms.
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Taking to YouTube, Julie shared a surprising action many of her patients take when approaching the end of their lives, calling it a 'beautiful process'.
It's likely something you haven't heard of before - termed by Julie as the 'death stare'.
Julie said she always tells the families of her patients that it's nothing to worry about.
"If you're not familiar with the end-of-life phenomena, there's a few things that happen at the end of life to most people," she explained.
"One of the things is called a death stare, which is when someone gets really fixated on a certain part of the room, and no matter what you do.
"You can snap your finger right in front of their face - an they will not move their gaze."
The end-of-life nurse went on to claim that, in some cases, the patient will begin talking to someone in the room invisible to all others whom they believe is really there, but added that they really break off from their stare.
"Sometimes they'll have a big smile on their face, like they're seeing something that's obviously making them very happy," she said.
It was then that Julie lifted the lid on an incident she encountered with an elderly man, which she says emphasises that the 'death stare' is nothing to fear.
Recalling the patient and his wife - who'd been married for 70 years - she told viewers: "I instantly loved these two. They were so, so, so sweet. They still seemed to be pretty madly in love."
Describing the man as 'pleasantly confused', the medic said he was able to recognise his wife and was happy to see Julie but couldn't keep up with conversations so well.
She continued: "He would be looking at me and smiling, then suddenly turn his head and be fixated on another part of the room."
Julie said the man then broke into out a 'huge smile, like he was seeing something over there', adding that she was unable to attract his attention for some time.
"I wanted his wife to see this because a lot of times these end-of-life phenomena can kind of give you a timeline of when this person may be dying," she added.
"It usually starts happening a few weeks to a month before someone dies."
Eventually, Julie recalled, the man's wife was reportedly able to figure out what her terminally ill husband had been looking at.
Apparently, she told the nurse: "He said 'Jesus'."
"Many people say they see many different things and it usually depends on what religion they are," Julie continued.
"The great thing is, whatever he was seeing, he was very happy, and he was smiling."
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
Kya Buller