Surprised by a dying patient’s final words

Last night I was in an emergency cubicle with a man who was dying. He was 62 years old with end stage respiratory failure, and had a background of chronic emphysema. His wife was with him and was visibly upset at the state of his condition, even though he had struggled with his breathing for most of his life.


credit: lugarshz

I was quite amazed at the conversation that transpired between this couple. She was trying to make him as comfortable as possible, getting extra pillows and asking him if he was ok. He was either unaware of the seriousness of this hospital visit or he had chosen to ignore it. Most of his limited conversation was about completely trivial things – the weather, the upcoming weekend.

At one point he whispered to his wife but she couldn’t hear him because he was wearing a large full faced mask hooked up to a bipap machine. She leaned closer, “what’s that dear?” I was also up close, and could barely make out what he was saying. What last words would he whisper, I thought to myself. I pictured myself in his position – maybe I would tell my wife how much I loved her, or enjoyed us being together. Maybe I would plea to my wife to continue enjoying life without me, find another partner if necessary! Don’t spend the rest of your only life lamenting my departure, I would tell her. I found myself once again pondering on how fleeting life is, how everything can change in a split second. Sometimes it takes a wake up call to truly appreciate things – you don’t realise how good it is to have a healthy body for instance until you become sick!

The man leant closer to his wife and repeated his question: “big lottery this weekend?” I was stunned. Big lottery?! What kind of last conversation is that! I thought about the question for a while, and realised he was just conversing with his wife like he would any other day of the week. He was sick all the time, and so this day was no different to any other. He was on automatic mode, and just spoke how he always would around the house.


credit: Matt.Picio

It made me think about the things we retain as hopes and dreams. Hoping and wanting for something to happen is something most of us have done at some time or other. I remember when I was a broke university student, hoping that I would receive a call about some long distant relative who had left me a massive inheritance! I have long since learned that nothing will fall into your lap without making some decisions to take action and having the right attitude, but things like the lottery continue to consume people’s every day hopes and dreams.

I thought about my own life. What are my hopes and dreams? Certainly I’ve met some of my goals, but there’s a lot more that I want to achieve in life! It’s a good reminder that the best time to start is now. I also know one thing for sure – I do not want to be on my death bed talking about the lottery! Life is fleeting, who knows where we will be tomorrow! What are your goals, have you achieved them? What do you want to get out of life?

Take some time to think about where you are now and where you would like to be.

If you need to make some changes in your life, start today! Get on the road to enjoying life – don’t let it pass you by.

Oh, and the wife’s response to the “big lottery” question? She paused for a moment then looked over at me with sad eyes as she replied in his ear softly, “you might get lucky, dear”.