Hospice Nurse Julie McFadden, known as Nurse Julie on social media, is candid about her experiences with patient deaths in an effort to educate people about end-of-life matters.
Nurse Julie has gained a following on social media for her frank discussions about her work, her patients, and the daily encounters with death she experiences in her role as a hospice nurse.
Despite this, she confesses that there are aspects of death that remain enigmatic even to those who confront it regularly.
In a conversation with NHS surgeon and fellow social media sensation, Dr Karan Rajan, on his podcast Dr Karan Explores, Julie recounted some of the cases that have left her utterly baffled, for which she has yet to find an explanation.
She revealed: “Every once in a while I’ll see someone who basically chooses when they’re going to die.”
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“They basically will say; ‘I’m going to die after this date’ or ‘I’ll wait for my daughter’s wedding’. I’ve literally had a patient say; ‘I’m dying tonight’ and then die even though they weren’t actively dying.”
When Dr Karan asked what might be occurring in these instances, Nurse Julie confessed: “I have no idea. They did not take anything, they did not do it. I could not believe it…Jaw on the floor, like what the heck?”
She is also baffled by reports of patients spotting departed loved ones, and even furry friends before their passing not as cinema portrays it, with a dramatic final vision at death’s door, but typically around three weeks earlier, reveals Julie.
She pointed out: “Those people who are seeing the dead people are very alert and oriented. They’re not like drugged up and on the verge of death. They’re up walking, talking and they are seeing things that we aren’t seeing.”
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Nurse Julie has noticed these pre-death visits always involve cherished individuals the dying are pleased to meet again. While she’s observed this phenomenon too frequently to recall a singular case, these interactions don’t escape her.
Drawing on her experience from the ICU to hospice care, where she witnessed a peaceful departure untouched by medical intervention, Julie was so inspired by the peaceful nature of natural death that she embarked on an online venture, now leading to her forthcoming publication, ‘Nothing to Fear’.
Detailing her revelations, she said: “When I saw my first death on Hospice, I feared death so much less because you could see how doing nothing to the body and allowing the body to just naturally die (is easier). If you just sort of allow the body to be the guide, it will start guiding the body.”