Some conversations stay with you for years, whether you want them to or not. And while nurses and doctors are used to hearing all sorts of things from patients, some confessions are so unexpected, shocking, or deeply personal that they stick in their minds long after a shift ends. After all, people can keep secrets for decades, only to decide that a hospital room is the perfect place to finally spill the beans.
Recently, medical professionals shared some of the most unforgettable confessions they had heard from patients in their final moments. From long-buried secrets to surprising revelations, these stories offer a glimpse into the things people sometimes choose to reveal when they know their time is running short.
#1
Not really a confession, but I worked as an in home caregiver at one point, and took care of several patients on hospice. There was one elderly woman who lived alone on this massive estate in the south. She was so incredibly sweet — you know, the elegant, soft spoken southern grandmother type. She had 4 married children that lived relatively close, who were all very very successful.
She was blind, frail, constantly in pain (though she wouldn’t show it), in a wheelchair, and she desperately loved her family. But each time her children, their spouses, her grandchildren visited, one would distract her, and the other would sneak around her home and steal. (Even though they were doctors/lawyers and the like.)
She’d wave them off with a cheerful goodbye, and as soon as their car was out of sight, she’d take a deep breath, and ask me to show her which room/s they gone in. Then she’d try to find what was taken. I’d watch her quietly cry, with these heartbreaking wimpers and sniffles, saying things like, “but that was my mother’s, it was all I had left of hers.”
One day while she was really suffering (her daughter in law demanded my company reduce her pain meds because “a*******n runs in the family”), she broke down and admitted that she felt that her life that she had dedicated to a more traditional role of raising children felt completely wasted and meaningless. She said that she doesn’t believe that she had ever been loved since her parents passed — not by her husband nor her children that she had sacrificed everything for. She said that since I was still young and had time, that I would learn from her mistakes, and live for myself, because “times are changing”.
She was so so lonely. Even though its been years, I still hope those nasty, rich, selfish little vultures step on a rusty nail.
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#2
Not a deathbed confession but as a palliative nurse I held the hand of a young mum who was dying, she cried out to hold her son but he was very young, possibly only 4 or 5 and was scared so his dad stopped bringing him to the hospital. It was heartbreaking as the dad was so torn, he stood outside her room sobbing. I often wonder about him as he would be in his 20s now and I hope he knows how much his mother wanted to hold him.
Image source: ClearArtichoke5143, Elina Fairytale / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#3
My grandfather was a very strict Catholic and had been all his life. On his deathbed he confessed that he and my grandmother had used birth control, which you’re not supposed to do if you’re catholic. I was already an atheist by that point but it just made me so mad and so sad that he felt like his soul was in danger because he and my grandmother acted like responsible adults.
Image source: Jon__Snuh, Renan Matias / Pexels (not the actual photo)
As people approach the end of their lives, they may find themselves looking back on the experiences that shaped them, the choices they made, and the relationships they formed along the way. Science Norway explains that psychologists call this process life review, a natural tendency to remember and evaluate past experiences as people try to make sense of their lives.
When the future becomes shorter and more uncertain, reflecting on the past can become a way to understand who they were and what their lives ultimately meant. Rather than simply reminiscing about happier times, people may begin revisiting moments that still carry emotional weight, including decisions they regret and things they wish they had done differently.
#4
Had a hospice patient confess she had smothered her profoundly disabled newborn in the late 1930’s – early 1940’s. The baby had the kind of issues that would involve surgeries that simply didn’t exist back when the child was born — the esophagus didn’t attach to the stomach.
Every drop of milk came back, the mouth “weren’t right,” and lord only knows what else. The husband was threatening to abandon her and the other kids because it “obviously” was because of something she did that the baby had severe disabilities, and the baby was wasting away, crying, unable to take in anything. So she smothered it. One of the saddest people I ever met.
Image source: Nerd2nurse, Lisa Fotios / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#5
A 92 year old man was telling me about how he’s been moving d***s for the cartel and driving them over the border etc. said he had been doing it all through his 70’s and early 80’s age. Said he had a 30 year old wife and 10 year old child. I thought he was delirious but then sure enough a 30 year old Mexican girl and his 10 year old son came to visit.
Edit: I’m gonna have to checkout the clint Eastwood movie. But this story happened in 2014 a few years before that movie even came out.
Image source: Infinite_Tip_1299, pierre matile / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#6
My first ever nursing job was in a retirement home. We had a sweet old lady with pretty severe dementia, but she was always prim and proper and let you know that was the way she was raised. Not too long before she passed, we had her in a wheelchair at the nurses’ station and she told me about how she was a s******r in her early 20s. This would have been in the 1950s sometime. She really got into the story trying to shake and move. Hilarious.
Image source: INparrothead, 성수 김 / Pexels (not the actual photo)
This reflection can bring unfinished business to the surface, particularly when it involves loved ones. People may think about relationships they neglected, apologies they never offered, or feelings they kept hidden because they feared the consequences of expressing them. Looking back can help some people reframe painful experiences, accept what they can no longer change, and recognize the meaning their lives have held.
Psychologist Erik Erikson explored a similar idea in his theory of psychosocial development, which suggests that reflecting on one’s life can lead to a sense of integrity and fulfillment or, alternatively, despair over missed opportunities and unfulfilled hopes. For some patients, sharing a long-held secret may therefore be part of trying to make peace with their past or ensure that others understand an important part of their lives.
#7
Not a nurse, but my grandma’s big end-of-life reveal was that she never actually liked the fruitcake she’d been making us every christmas for 40 years. she just assumed we did and neither side wanted to break it to the other.
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#8
I was an intern at the time on neurology rotation. A gentleman in his 50s or 60s had some paralysis and loss of sensation in his lower legs from likely inflammatory process. One morning, we told him his daughter called to ask about him. He broke into tears and said, “she cares?” And he proceeded to tell us his children stopped talking to him years ago when in a heated argument he told his ex wife (their mom) to k**l herself and she did. He was over the moon to get the chance to make amends with his daughter. That evening after speaking to her on the phone, he suddenly died of cardiac arrest out of nowhere.
Image source: midazzleam, Tima Miroshnichenko / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#9
That she was a spy. I had always joked around with her about how I assumed she was based on little things she had said. Turns out she was a code cracker for Canada during WW2 and would ear hustle at the bars to overhear drunken soldiers spilling secrets. I verified with the family and it was true.
Image source: mufassil, Pedro Lemos / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The desire to open up can also be influenced by the person on the receiving end of a confession. Upworthy explores why patients nearing the end of life may feel comfortable confiding in nurses and doctors, who can offer a combination of emotional support, familiarity, and distance from the patient’s personal relationships. Someone may hesitate to tell a spouse or child about a past mistake, a difficult feeling, or a secret that could hurt the family.
A healthcare professional, however, is close enough to offer compassion without being directly involved in the situation. This can make it easier for patients to discuss sensitive subjects they have avoided for years, particularly when they feel that a medical professional will listen calmly rather than react with anger or disappointment.
#10
I was a hospice nurse for 10 years. Took care of a Chevy car dealership owner on his deathbed. He said “Buy a Toyota”.
Image source: ccaz323, Johnny P / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#11
Does a vet nurse count? I was with a client while we euthanasized her dog and she whispered to her dog ” I’m sorry I never told you that you were adopted” Her husband laughed and I had to excuse myself.
Image source: cathabit, Tima Miroshnichenko / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#12
Once the vaccine became available in the early pandemic, many many men, especially, refused the vaccine because their leaders told them to.
Cut to these men, dying in the ICU and barely able to breathe, saying to themselves and to me: “I’m so stupid. I’m so stupid. Why didn’t I get the vaccine!?”
And I said plural because I actually had 3 different male patients in that same scenario, and they all died a terrible d***h.
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Trust often develops through repeated interactions rather than one dramatic conversation. Nurses may spend extended periods caring for patients, sharing quiet moments, providing comfort, and talking about ordinary things that gradually make a hospital room feel less unfamiliar. These everyday interactions can create opportunities for patients to become more open about their fears, regrets, and personal histories.
Facing a serious illness can also bring questions about mortality, loneliness, and unfinished relationships into sharper focus, making previously avoided conversations feel more urgent. A confession may not necessarily be an attempt to obtain forgiveness or change what happened, but sometimes, a patient simply wants someone to understand what they have been carrying privately. Being heard without judgment can offer comfort when other aspects of their situation feel beyond their control.
#13
Lady said her son was her favorite child. Her daughter was the primary caretaker and bedside.
Image source: MeasurementTall7701, Jsme MILA / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#14
I’m an RN and in the ICU about 10 years ago doing dialysis on a man over 90 years old, he was told by his cardiologist his heart would not tolerate being off dialysis or even being on dialysis. Every time he had dialysis his blood pressure would drop too much no matter what. I happened to be in the room when he got this information. The gentleman was given the option to stop his dialysis mid treatment if he wanted to. He wanted to keep going until his son arrived who was expected to arrive soon. He had to tell him something.
The son arrived who still lived on the family farm in Iowa, and his dad said there was gold buried underneath the concrete water trough for the cattle which was built in 1933 and it was time to retrieve it. The son thought his dad was delirious and said “sure, dad” and seemed he didn’t believe him. The dad kept saying it and the son finally began to believe him. I never found out if gold was really there but his elderly Dad gave his last ounces of energy and effort to tell him.
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#15
I worked in hospice and had a German woman (living in the US) tell me a bunch of stories about how she had to move to South America after WW2. She had 5 or 6 kids basically in a shack and said it was really a terrible way of life for a while.
After listening to her for a while, I put together that her husband was a N**i officer and they were fleeing so he wouldn’t get persecuted for war crimes.
ETA Prosecuted! Not persecuted.
Image source: SrirachaPants, Alberto Ramírez Sobrino / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Another reason people may choose to reveal something deeply personal is their desire to make sense of unresolved experiences before they lose the opportunity to address them. Verywell Mind explains that the need for cognitive closure refers to a preference for clear answers and definite conclusions rather than uncertainty. Closure can also involve acknowledging difficult emotions, repairing relationships, apologizing, forgiving someone, or finding meaning in past decisions.
When an issue remains unresolved, people may continue searching for explanations or imagining how things could have turned out differently. This can become particularly significant near the end of life, when there may be limited time left to revisit an old disagreement, explain a painful decision, or tell someone how much they mattered.
#16
I’m palliative, probably a year to go…on off fighting cancer 10+ years, finally caught up with me.
not on my deathbed or in hospice yet and I don’t have anything to confess.
If I did I wouldn’t put that burden on someone.
I’d be noping right out if that room if someone tried to pull that s**t on me.
All I can say is get your affairs in order because it s***s spending these good months figuring out everything.
Why the hell am I seeing so many of these posts,
buy a new car see it everywhere.
Image source: Dunk_the_Iunk, Odin Reyna / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#17
Had a patient many years ago she had a 60 y.o daughter she just met 2 years prior. She said she got a call 2 years ago from this woman telling her “ you think your child died at birth many years ago, she didn’t d*e… i am your child” apparently the daughter was sold at birth to a couple and on the mother of the couples d***h bed told the then 58 y.o. lady at the time “ I am not your biological mom, her name is such and such” and gave her info to find her biological mom which was my patient. Not sure where this was or truthfulness of it but I haven’t ever forgotten the story.
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#18
Last words before he died with eyes so dry he can’t cry, from lung cancer at 49 with 5 kids. This was 15 years ago in my first year of rotations.
“F**k those g*****n cigarettes”.
Image source: DanInTheOC, Marek Piwnicki / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Not every unresolved issue can be neatly settled, however, and finding closure does not always mean receiving forgiveness or obtaining every answer. Sometimes, the most a person can do is acknowledge what happened, explain their perspective, or finally express a feeling they have kept hidden. Speaking openly can turn a private concern into something another person has witnessed and understood, even if the circumstances cannot be changed.
This may help explain why some patients share their most personal revelations with a healthcare professional rather than with the person directly involved. A clinician can provide a space for reflection without promising to repair a relationship or resolve a lifetime of regret. The act of speaking may itself be meaningful, particularly when the patient wants their experiences to be understood rather than left entirely unspoken.
#19
Not a nurse exactly but I worked with the elderly in a retirement house my job was to listen and talk to the people there especiallythe ones who are the loneliest, someone i think about the most is a old man claiming to be a n**i spy that never got caught after the war ended and decided to continue under the new character he had created for spying, he insisted that he was sorry about that and asked for me to tell his daughter about it, i thought that you know old people are sometimes a little lost so I didn’t give it much importance a few hours later the old man committed s*****e, he left a letter retelling the same story but in German for his wife (a black woman) , all the he had claimed he was too weak to write, and no one ever told me much more about what happened there and i left the job shortly after, but there’s a chance I was a confession booth for an ex n**i.
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#20
My family found out my grandpa had a whole other family, 2 kids. I think there were suspicions that he had cheated on my grandma and that’s why they split. But yeah, he asked my dad to reach out to his “other children” after he had a heart attack. Turns out the mother was one of his students (supposedly years after she graduated…). This was in 2016. Our family tried welcoming them but the tension was high and so now we kind of just pretend that whole saga never happened.
Image source: DrSometimez, cottonbro studio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#21
I had a patient who was suffering from dementia who was a cop in the 70s – 90s, and he wasn’t dying but he would sundown pretty hard. Basically he was lucid during the day, but as soon as the sun started to go down, his touch with reality was less consistent and sleep was basically nonexistent. He told me a lot of terrible things he did against people of color or money he used to take in bribes or taking advantage of women who he would pull over. It was kind of like he was confessing I think because he felt comfortable with me but then the next day he would be completely lucid and if you mentioned anything that he said the previous evening he would just deny it.
Image source: FUNwithaCH, Kindel Media / Pexels (not the actual photo)
These conversations can also leave a lasting impression on the nurses and doctors who hear them. Research into palliative care suggests that being trusted with a patient’s personal experiences can strengthen the connection between clinician and patient, helping healthcare professionals provide more compassionate and attentive care.
Listening to someone discuss their regrets, fears, or relationships can give clinicians a deeper understanding of the person behind the medical condition. At the same time, this emotional closeness can be difficult to navigate.
Repeated exposure to suffering, grief, and complicated family situations may leave healthcare workers experiencing sadness, anxiety, guilt, or grief of their own. A patient’s confession is not simply another piece of information to process. Rather, it can involve being entrusted with deeply personal feelings at a time when the person sharing them may have little opportunity to make things right.
#22
I visited a patient my age who was about to go home on hospice for metastatic cancer. I only work outpatient and don’t get into the hospital very frequently, but this is a patient I weathered this storm with and I (and her) needed closure. Not so much a confession, but the patient was soon to be discharged and the admitting team didn’t finalize her out of hospital DNR so the nurse asked me to sign it. I was the PCP, it made sense, but d**n. Then, after finishing up the visit, as I was leaving and saying my goodbyes she whispers, not a confession, but a request: “please take care of my kids and husband.” I was absolutely destroyed.
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#23
Trauma patient looked me in the eye and said “I’m going to d*e, I see the light” then coded.
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#24
Not a big confession but I still remember removing a blood clot in someone’s leg, them confessing they haven’t been taking their blood thinning medicine and thanking me for saving their leg throughout the case, and them coding and dying from a PE an hour after the case in the ICU.
Image source: paracentesismd, Anna Shvets / Pexels (not the actual photo)
For this reason, supporting patients through emotionally difficult conversations also requires healthcare professionals to recognize their own limits. Clinicians may feel an understandable urge to help patients resolve their regrets, but some circumstances cannot be fixed, and not every confession comes with a practical solution.
Listening without judgment, offering reassurance where appropriate, and helping patients explore what remains possible can still make a meaningful difference. These conversations can be powerful reminders that care involves more than treating symptoms or following medical procedures. Sometimes, it also means giving someone the opportunity to share a part of their life they have never felt able to explain, and ensuring that they do not have to carry that moment alone.
#25
My pastor loves telling the story of a man who was very grieved at the end of his life over a secret he had kept for decades. Of course, my pastor assumed it was an affair or something on that level, but it ended up being that he was a part of a government task force to plant kudzu all over our area.
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#26
Caretook an elderly extraordinarily wealthy couple in order that they could stay in their own home.
I was the estate manager as opposed to in homecare, which they didn’t actually need at that point.
The fear these two lived with of any weakness being discovered by their children and grandchildren, and exploited to strip them of their autonomy was unreal.
Ultimately the old man, when we took his beloved dog to visit him in the lavish nursing facility his kids had flung him into while his wife was convalescing from emergency surgery, and who had told us was unresponsive and unconscious, immediately begged us to get him out of there and hide him. He was grateful we brought him his dog, and spoke entirely Lucid to both the dog and us.
Both of them passed within a very limited amount of time. It amazed me just how quickly they could all turn up at the estate to claim valuables, when they sure couldn’t be bothered while the elders were alive at home and sociable.
I will never outlive the looks of hope they had that i, the groundskeeper, could rescue them somehow from the vultures sitting on the wall watching them falter, who were their own family.
Image source: IrascibleBamboo2, German Suarez / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#27
Not a nurse, but when my grandfather passed he confided in my mother that my very Catholic grandmother had an affair that resulted in an abortion in the 70s, so that was a doozy. Apparently grandpa was messing around too, so they chose to forgive each other and stayed together for another 30 years until she died.
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Sometimes, the things people remember most about their lives are not the big milestones, but the words they held back, the decisions they questioned, and the secrets they never found the right moment to share. For nurses and doctors, hearing these personal revelations can offer a rare glimpse into another person’s life, including the parts that remained hidden from family and friends.
Have you ever heard a confession that completely changed the way you saw someone, or do you believe some secrets are better left unspoken? Share your thoughts in the comments, because we would love to hear from you!
#28
Not even a doctor or nurse, but my wife was working in a care home years ago before we were married. So I went to her work to pick her up for a date and ended up sitting with this old guy in his room and he ended up telling me his whole life story for about two hours. He had lost his wife about a year before that, so at the end he went “And I really I miss her, I think I’ll go see her now” and that was it, he died right there.
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#29
I was a caregiver for an elderly lady who helped her mom k**l her horribly a*****e dad. He would come home drunk and beat the living daylights out of the family among other things. Back then the police didn’t give a s**t if the town drunk beat his wife and kids, and nobody missed him when he went missing.
Image source: TrendySpork, Maurício Mascaro / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#30
My grandfather was a WW2 veteran. He never talked about his experience at war which was very common with veterans. Apparently, on his deathbed he confessed to k*****g several German soldiers in battle but he was haunted by one particular German soldier because he was practically a boy. During the final year of the war, Germany had 14 and 15 year olds on the frontlines because that’s all that was left in reserve.
Image source: the_chin2, Bryce Carithers / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#31
I had a patient during fall of 2020 have the last words he said before he was intubated was “Covid is fake.” He was never extubated. He died of respiratory failure from COVID.
Image source: vladintines
#32
Old dude I was transporting in the ambulance and had both feet in the grave admitted to shooting his wife’s first love, then died not long after getting to the hospital.
Image source: RuneMaster433
#33
No word of a lie, this happened 10 mins ago. A patient in our palliative room called out for help so I poked my head in and asked what was wrong. He gestured for me to come closer grabbed my hand and held it and said “something terrible has happened” and I said “oh?! How so?!” And this was his reply:
“Those 2 boys who were convicted of that terrible act are innocent and someone has attacked them viciously….. I gotta throw up now” – which he did but then went straight back to his unconscious state.
Yeah… that was so messed up.
Image source: BatGirlBarb
#34
Not a d***h-bad confession, but sort of close. My father had a big party when he turned 100. It was a funny story; he thanked his doctors who attended but said, “People ask me how I made it to 100 years, and no, it wasn’t the doctors.” he held up the book “Dare to be 100” and continued, “It’s all in this book.”
Later at the party, I asked him if his “secrets” were really in that book, and he said, “Hell no! You think I’m going to give my secrets away for free?!” Died a few years later.
Image source: blarryg
#35
So this was a while before he died but I once had a very confused patient with advanced Parkinson’s mistake me for his adult daughter. He broke down and kept apologizing for tearing the family apart. He confessed to having some kind of s****l relations with his wife’s 13 yo sister (no timeline provided so idk how old he would’ve been). Honestly I don’t know if this was true or not, but he went on for 30+ min and he was divorced, so….
Also he was very distressed, so I did notify his social worker.
Image source: ToxicIntrovert_99
#36
I’m an RN, but the deathbed confession was from my mom! At 84, (I was 62) my mom told me she had an affair before I was born. My dad made her get a job when my older brother was a baby. It was mid 1950s, she just wanted to be a housewife and a mom, but dad was insistent. Well, she met a guy there who said all the nice things to her, made her feel pretty and wanted. I don’t know the details about how dad found out, but most of my childhood memories were my dad belittling her and making her life miserable. She cried a lot. When I was 8, they divorced. Dad wanted to be with his girlfriend.
After mom told me this, it completely changed *my* story. My dad was a jerk because she cheated. Ok, he probably was a jerk anyway or he wouldn’t have treated her that way, but my story was that my parents divorced because he cheated but in reality, my mom cheated and my dad never got over it…until he did. After telling my big brother, he had the same reaction I did. Being older, he really was affected by our dad’s treatment of mom, so he was really shaken up. Momma died, my brother and I are closer than ever. The End.
Image source: imarudewife
#37
A friend’s father (on his deathbed) decided to tell all to his wife and the affair that he had. He then, against all odds, recovered. His wife never forgave him.
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#38
Worked on a dementia unit for a few years. Had a resident suffering from vascular dementia, it was cruel to see how fast it progressed. There would be rare moments of lucidity among all residents, her included. It was late at night after her daughters had left for the day and she was very calm. She described how horrible her second husband was, and how one day he ended up at the bottom of the stairs. She didn’t have any regrets. A little bit more time passes and she’s back to normal dementia state. The mind is a vast, scary place.
Image source: mindnumb_2
#39
“I just hope the blacks can forgive me.”
My dad spent his whole life pretty racist. He was just an uneducated plumber and never acted on his prejudices in outward ways. He even acted in spite of them a few times by helping black people open businesses or get jobs.
But for some reason, he never could shake how he was raised and always saw nonwhite people as being lower class or lesser than.
A few days before he died, we were talking about what comes after d***h, and he said, “I know Jesus forgives me, I just hopes the blacks can forgive me.”
It’s awkward to talk about but also an example of how anyone can change and it’s never too late.
Image source: steeple_fun
#40
As a young man in the 1980s I volunteered at an AIDS hospice. One of the people living there owned their own home but could no longer care for themself which is why they moved into the hospice. They asked me to clean out their house as they wanted it to go to their nephew after they were gone. So, I went there, and the place was filthy and a hoarder’s dream. I spent days hauling stuff out of there. There was one bedroom in the back which they had wallpapered with gay p****graphic pictures. There were weapons hidden around the room – a machete behind the headboard, a knife tucked under the mattress, etc… I realized they had been hustling, brought clients back to the house, and had the weapons ready at hand in case they needed to protect themself.
The last thing I had to do before the house was cleared out was to clean the basement which was filled almost to the ceiling with trash. After clearing it out, I noticed an unusual patch of cement in the basement floor – approximately three by six feet. I went back to the hospice that afternoon and discussed the situation with the guy who ran the place. We decided we had no firm proof of anything criminal having happened – perhaps that part of the floor had developed a sink hole for all we knew. A month or so later the owner of the house got up out of their bed at the hospice, came to the head of the stairs, and tumbled down them. I called for an ambulance and they died shortly after we arrived at the hospital.
Image source: HeneniP
#41
Fist patient from whom I ever took a history told me he had worked as a pilot. When I asked why type of plane he candidly talked about flying narcotics for Colombian d**g cartels/lords in the 80. Wasn’t a deathbed confession, he was a random inpatient I was assigned to interview, but it was a hell of a story.
Image source: wb77
#42
I supported a gentleman that said he had been shot at in WW2. He was stationed out in France and his plane had been shot down.
Most of the staff thought he was just telling fanciful stories, but I didn’t understand why they thought that.
When he had reached the end of life, and was actively dying his body started to push out all the shrapnel that had been lodged inside him. He had quite large bits of metal poking out from his skin all over his lower back and shoulders. Maybe not a confession, but a validation.
Image source: cdseventyeight
#43
Not really a confession but horrifying truth. I was working on a geriatric ward in Germany.. An old man was having a delirium and reimagining all the horrible things of War mostly the things he committed. He sang Songs to one of our polish nurses how he had k**ler her husband and children and would now r**e her. Later boasting about how many people he had shot.
His family knew he had been at the Ostfront. But after the war you did not talk about things that happened there. So the wife and children were very disturbed by his stories. He died a few days later.
Image source: Coolpabloo7
#44
“I’ve never cheated on my wife though.”
After he told me all the racketeering and violence he did.
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#45
My friend told me once that he k****d a man and dumped his body in a river. The man was a horrible person who r***d and beat a woman who my friend was close to. I don’t have any details so I can’t help the police close a cold missing person’s case, but when a vicious monster goes missing, people just shrug and say he had it coming.
Image source: TenMoon
#46
Whats wild is how these confessions swing from someone doing something awful just to survive to a old man terrified he used birth control once and god was gonna get him. Mine would probably just be the Blockbuster DVD I never returned in 2004.
Image source: agradoway
#47
One lady’s movement disorder was progressing, she was weakening so much she could hardly speak. When her friend visited, she wrote on the whiteboard given to her “Kyle k****d four women”. Her friend said that Kyle was her husband who has since died. I wasn’t able to stick around for much longer but wow.
Image source: libradementor
#48
Critical care doc here. Never heard a bedside confession, but I’ve had dozens of patients tell me “I’m not going to make it” or words to that effect when we are admitting them to the ICU. They are always right. .
Image source: Vanilla-blue-86
#49
My grandmother smiled and looked into the corner where no one was and said “it’s so good to see you, I’ve been waiting” smiled some more fell into a coma and died within 24 hrs.
Edit: I don’t work in healthcare. This is just an example of odd things I’ve witnessed with people passing. No d***h rattle like an uncle of mine. That was a whole other experience. Anyone who works or cares for people in their last days showing them dignity and respect, all power and respect to you!
Image source: ProcedureForeign7281
#50
Obligatory Not a Doctor. My great grandma had one of these. Just before her alzheimers took her, she told us all about her first husband, who was purged by Stalin, and the child with him that she lost during the famines in Ukraine during the late 30s.
Image source: mf9769
#51
Work in Dementia Care in activities/D***h Doula. At that stage everything’s usually quiet. Sometimes the d***h rattle, a mouthed thank you, the fear of d***h in someone’s eyes or face. Ive never really put much stock into d***h bed confessions. Lost 5 people last week.
I miss you Mont man, Flyin J, Sandman, and Pat Pat.thank you for allowing me to see you to the other side.
Image source: FirefighterLeft5425
#52
My maternal grandma shared a family secret that my grandpa’s sister stayed with them during the sister’s secret pregnancy. She gave the baby up for adoption. A few years later we found out that baby was adopted by my dad’s aunt and uncle. The deathbed confession was the secret baby. Who knew that would lead to my parents sharing a cousin.
Image source: kaitmarie312
#53
My patient was imminently dying and told her husband the day before that she wracked up $60,000 in debt on 3 credit cards he never knew she had.
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#54
First pt I ever saw actively dying was fighting during care, and apparently had been generally agitated. As I passed her son outside of the room, her said something like “If you lived a bad life, I guess you’re afraid to d*e”. 25 yrs and I can still see that room, and the pt fighting.
Image source: p3canj0y363
#55
I’ve had several that were the “the kid isn’t yours” or “I had another family” type of confessions. With the wider spread of DNA and genealogy testing I do think it’ll be a dying art to take those secrets to the grave.
Image source: TransMuffMaam
#56
My grandma that I was the only one who was allowed to clean out her room when she passed.
It turns out that she had a lot of lesbian magazines as well as paraphernalia.
The poor woman was in the closet for almost 90 years.
Image source: thepopemichael
#57
My dad died in front of me and his cousin who was a preacher. At my dad’s funeral the cousin gave the service and said that at his end my dad asked Christ for forgiveness. My dad was an atheist his whole life and never did so. I was with him the whole time my dad’s cousin was. I went up to speak for my father and I corrected him in front of the family. He was livid but he lied. We spoke about it before he left town and I said to him that while we don’t believe in heaven he does and lying about something this serious is a good reason to be judged. We’ve not spoken sense.
Image source: Moron-Whisperer
#58
A lady with Lewy body dementia admitted she was married before and her oldest son isn’t her husbands but he doesn’t know.
Turns out grandmas safety deposit box did have an old marriage certificate. And uncle and his kids don’t look like us.
Image source: Careless_Street_600
#59
Not a confession, but had a patient who had terminal brain cancer and 2 small kids (5 year old twins). She was recently divorced and her husband was not kind to her. Her biggest fear was that her kids would not remember her with love because they would be raised by their dad who said horrible things about her. Honestly there was nothing I could say to comfort her because her fear probably would come true. I didn’t know what to say so I said almost nothing. .
Image source: nneriac
#60
Man slit both arms and femoral arteries. Ended up dying shortly after arriving to the ER, from DIC.
His last words to me were, “it hurts”.
Image source: CasualGamerDad
#61
A 90 year old woman told me she realised in her youth she was a lesbian.
Thinking it a sin, she married her husband and stayed with him for over 60 years.
Image source: SouthParrot
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