End-of-life doctor reveals what people say right before death

Newsner Stories ^ | Sep 2025 | Himani Ediriweera

[where's_the_Outrage?]

After years at the bedside of dying patients, a hospice doctor noticed a striking pattern – when the end comes, people don’t cling to fear. In its place come final words that are quiet, powerful, and often shockingly unexpected.

While death is one of the most feared and least discussed parts of life, it is a moment of deep psychological transformation for many. Dr. Christopher Kerr, a palliative care physician with over two decades of experience at Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo, has studied more than 1,500 end-of-life events. His findings challenge our traditional understanding of dying – not as a void, but as a “unique vantage point” that “changes one’s perspective and perception.”

“It naturally draws you inward. There’s reflection, and often people focus on the best points of having lived and having mattered. And that’s usually our relationships,” said Dr. Kerr, who heads the research team on dreams and visions at the end of life.

Contrary to what many expect, the final days of life are not always filled with fear.

“We’ve all been harmed in one way or another for having lived, and we seem to get put back together through these experiences,” he told the Sun. “And so, the life you live gets validated, and inversely, the fear of death seems to lessen.”

Kerr’s research shows that most dying patients experience powerful dreams or visions – sometimes involving meetings with long-lost loved ones or recalling significant life events – that provide emotional closure......

According to Kerr, children experience death differently – often because they don’t fully grasp its finality.

Instead of fear, many terminally ill children see comforting visions, like animals that assure them they’re “loved and not alone.”

“Children are creative and imaginative and can access that part of them,” Kerr said.

[Kommodor]

... Dream within a dream

Now you’re making me want to go listen to some Alan Parsons Project...

[vpintheak]

Personally I have zero fear of death. I do fear of how my wife will do without me, and kids without me and my advice. I KNOW beyond a shadow of doubt that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and defeated sin and death forever. I KNOW that the only thing that can get me to Heaven is Jesus and his forever blood atonement. There is nothing good enough in me, as is evidenced by many of my FR posts
Praise be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, forever and forever!

[shotgun]

I hope so too! I always tell me fur babies to wait for me on the other side of the rainbow bridge.

[CaptainK]

“Kerr’s research shows that most dying patients experience powerful dreams or visions – sometimes involving meetings with long-lost loved ones or recalling significant life events – that provide emotional closure......”

My best friend’s Uncle, in his 80s, was lying on death bed with his eyes closed.

His son tapped him on the shoulder to see if he had passed. He opened his eyes and was upset with his son for waking him because he was having a wonderful dream of being young again and back driving his work truck. He passed a few minutes later.

[Chickensoup]

I have found in my work that we are who we are to the time of death.

[Chickensoup]

Jesus didn’t know??

[Chickensoup]

We are stardust.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

May God stand between you and harm in all the empty places you must walk.

[Chickensoup]

Thank you for your kind prayer.

[Songcraft]

Here's some background music for this thread.

"When They Ring Those Golden Bells" - Florida Boys

"By The Riverside" - Ben & Micah Hester

"Ain't No Grave" - Molly Skaggs

"In The Sweet By And By" - Ben Hester

"I'll Fly Away" - Gillian Welch · Alison Krauss

"Blest Be The Tie That Binds" - Gaithers

"When Im Gone" - Randy Newman

"You Got To Move" - Willie Neal Johnson & the New Keynotes

"If We Never Meet Again This Side Of Heaven" - Leon Redbone

"How Far is Heaven" -Kathy Kane

"When We All Get To Heaven" - Redeemed Quartet

"God Be With You Till We Meet Again" - Patti Page

"Going Home" - Gaithers

"Will The Circle Be Unbroken" - Jimmy Swaggart

"Take My Hand, Precious Lord" - Gaithers

"Taps" - Kristi Lynn

[Right Brigade]

Luke 17:20-21

20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

[politicianslie]

I lied for two days after her date, finally we told her, today is your birthday. She passed a few hours later.

I had never considered that until you posted your experience. My mother always wanted to live to her 100th birthday and she was stubborn enough to make it happen.

At her 97th birthday, I gave her a CONGRADS on 100 birthday card, and just a few weeks later....

[ViLaLuz]

Wonderful list! Thanks.

[Dr. Franklin]

It’s not enough to be good, you need to believe in Christ as savior imputing His righteousness for salvation.

I am not disagreeing with you necessarily, but my comment is proved historically. In his book, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, historian Timothy Snyder refers to the widespread cannibalism during the disaster:

The good people died first. Those who refused to steal or to prostitute themselves died. Those who gave food to others died. Those who refused to eat corpses died. Those who refused to kill their fellow man died. Parents who resisted cannibalism died before their children did.

When that is understood about WWII, an experienced historian does not accept everything that survivors relate, such as those in concentration camps, as necessarily true because they were there. Those who survived the war, and its more horrific experiences for any length of time, likely were doing something immoral to survive at the expense of others. For example one historian noted that those who survived in German concentration camps were in one of three categories:
1) Those who had skills the Germans found useful. 2) Those who informed on others, or leaders who managed other inmates, i.e. the Judenrat. 3) Those with physical strength that permitted them to take food from others, or women prostituting themselves to strong men.
People who survived such unpleasant competition were unlikely to volunteer what nasty things they did to out compete others for survival. That is not to judge them, but to weigh their credibility on other issues, especially if they point fingers at other people or ethnic groups.