Whenever someone in an industry we don’t know much about shares the secrets behind their jobs, it’s hard not to get a little curious.
Because even if we aren’t picking up a few tricks of their trade, we can find ourselves appreciating what they do more as we learn how much they overcome to do their jobs. And if what they have to tell us is explosive enough, it can steer us away from the industry they left behind entirely.
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But for those working in health care, we can find that their experiences teach us just as much about ourselves as they do about their jobs.
And based on how often one hospice nurse says the mysterious phenomena she’ll tell us about happens, there’s a very good chance that we’ll learn more about how our own lives could end after seeing her videos.
On October 25, a hospice nurse named Julie uploaded the first of two videos discussing strange things that tend to happen when patients are about to pass away.
In this video, she told us about a phenomenon known as “the rally” that tends to occur when a patient is in such critical health that they’re expected to pass away in a matter of days.
At some point during those last days (and sometimes even the final day of life), Julie said, “Suddenly, they look like they are ‘better.'”
By that, she means that they’ll often eat more, talk more, and even walk around when they were in no condition to do so before.
Although there are many ways this “rally” can take form, patients who go through it tend to feel more like their old selves than before and show more of an outgoing personality.
As far as Julie could tell, this happens with about a third of the patients she sees, so it’s common practice for hospice staff to warn families to recognize “the rally” so it doesn’t blindside them when a patient passes away after “doing so well.”
But despite how often this phenomenon occurs, Julie said that medical professionals are no closer to explaining why it happens.
But while the other mysterious phenomenon Julie had for us likely sounds familiar, it apparently works a little differently in real life than it does in the movies.
While we might see characters in films or TV shows claim to see their beloved dead relatives, friends, or pets soon before they die, Julie said this actually tends to happen about a month before a patient passes away.
And much like in the movies, it’s also not unheard for these patients to report seeing angels and spirits as well.
As Julie said, “They’ll actually ask us, ‘Do you see what I’m seeing?'”
And although this happens about as often as “the rally,” it’s just as impossible for Julie and her colleagues to explain why it happens.
But in each case, only the patient can see these visions. And while we might expect these sights to herald that the end is near in a real and frightening way, Julie said that’s not usually how patients react to these hallucinations.
In Julie’s words, “Most people love this. They’re very comforted by it. It’s not scary to them.”