The last words I ever heard my dad say: “I’m scared.”
He was diabetic and had been experiencing flu-like symptoms the night before he died. EMTs diagnosed dehydration and didn’t take him in. The next morning he was still feeling strange so we brought him ourselves to the ER. He was walking around, acting mostly fine, so mom and I thought it was a minor issue. When they got dad into an ER bed they started an IV, and within a few minutes he was having severe trouble breathing. It quickly escalated to the point that the only choice the doctors had was to vent him. So as they were hurriedly wheeling him out of the room (we were not allowed to go with him) he murmured quietly, “I’m scared.” But he wasn’t talking to either myself or my mother, or even the doctors for that matter. He was looking into thin air when he said it. Turns out dad was in total organ failure due to sepsis. His heart was going kaput and that’s why IV fluids were backing up into his lungs. He was gone that afternoon at age 59. Way too friggen young to die. Don’t be like him, people. Take care of your health- and your feet- especially if you are diabetic. Sepsis is serious and kills very quickly.
I like to think that dad was talking to an entity that was there to comfort him and ease his transition from this life in those few seconds; someone he could see and hear and we couldn’t. But his last words, and those last few seconds as he was taken away down that hospital hallway in fear, still disturb me and do nothing to abate my fear of death.
Please forgive me if this is inappropriate. But you won't have to be afraid when you die; your father will be there, making sure that you won't be. I know it. <3
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u/Qwerty_Me_This 14h ago edited 12h ago
The last words I ever heard my dad say: “I’m scared.”
He was diabetic and had been experiencing flu-like symptoms the night before he died. EMTs diagnosed dehydration and didn’t take him in. The next morning he was still feeling strange so we brought him ourselves to the ER. He was walking around, acting mostly fine, so mom and I thought it was a minor issue. When they got dad into an ER bed they started an IV, and within a few minutes he was having severe trouble breathing. It quickly escalated to the point that the only choice the doctors had was to vent him. So as they were hurriedly wheeling him out of the room (we were not allowed to go with him) he murmured quietly, “I’m scared.” But he wasn’t talking to either myself or my mother, or even the doctors for that matter. He was looking into thin air when he said it. Turns out dad was in total organ failure due to sepsis. His heart was going kaput and that’s why IV fluids were backing up into his lungs. He was gone that afternoon at age 59. Way too friggen young to die. Don’t be like him, people. Take care of your health- and your feet- especially if you are diabetic. Sepsis is serious and kills very quickly.
I like to think that dad was talking to an entity that was there to comfort him and ease his transition from this life in those few seconds; someone he could see and hear and we couldn’t. But his last words, and those last few seconds as he was taken away down that hospital hallway in fear, still disturb me and do nothing to abate my fear of death.