An ICU nurse on TikTok says there is one moment she has witnessed again and again that convinces her a patient is about to die, even when medical data shows no obvious warning signs.
In a video posted by @KirstieRobbb, the nurse describes a pattern she believes happens without fail. “I have been an ICU nurse for four years,” KirstieRobbb says in her post, “and something that I would like to say and share, and I hope it doesn’t fall on deaf ears, is this: Every single person who passes away says the same thing. They say, can you please tell my family I love them? I don’t feel good. I know I’m gonna die.”
Stable vital signs don’t matter
She goes on to say that what makes this moment so striking is that it often occurs when nothing in the patient’s chart suggests imminent death.
“Their vitals may be stable,” she says. “Their condition may be the exact same way it was when they came in. There’s nothing inherently dangerous. Yet in every single circumstance, they always die. Always.”
According to the nurse, no amount of intervention changes the outcome once this “shift” happens.”It doesn’t matter how much medicine we give them, it doesn’t matter how many tests, labs, CT scans, procedures are performed. The minute that that inner shift happens. They always die,” she says.
She describes the experience as spiritual rather than medical. “There’s a shift that happens that’s spiritual, that nobody can explain… the spirit is crying out and telling the person, you have one more chance. This is your last opportunity.”
Loved ones “coming to get them”
Commenters noted similar moments they’d experienced with loved ones. ” … they always start talking to their loved ones that has already passed away too. They be saying such and such coming to get them.🙏🏼”
A nurse shared a similar experience: “I was assessing a new 85 y/o admit & she said, ‘Don’t bother honey, my mom & dad came & said they’d be back later for me. ‘ She coded an hour later & was a DNR.”
Another person recalled lessons from a former hospice worker: “My high school nutrition/ food science teacher was a former hospice care worker (not a nurse). Nearly all of them right before passing would start talking to people who weren’t visibly there that were usually family and saying things like ‘I’m so happy to see you,’ ‘Where are we going,’ ‘It’s time to go?'”
What happens when we die?
KirstieRobbb frames the phenomenon as spiritual, and end-of-life researchers and hospice professionals have long documented similar experiences known as “end-of-life visions” or “deathbed visions.” Patients near death sometimes report seeing deceased relatives, speaking to unseen people, or expressing a sudden certainty that they are about to die.
Medical experts believe several factors may contribute, including changes in brain chemistry, oxygen levels, organ failure, medication effects, and the brain’s response to extreme physiological stress. These experiences are common enough in hospice and palliative care that many caregivers are trained not to contradict patients, but to offer comfort and reassurance.
Still, for KirstieRobbb, the takeaway is not clinical but personal. Her message, whether viewed through a spiritual or medical lens, has resonated widely: pay attention to life now, say what needs to be said, and don’t wait for a hospital bed to express love.
Published: Feb 11, 2026 01:14 pm