Deathbed vision experiences, has anyone experienced this with there loved one?

Does she have an UTI? My mom has gotten them and thought she talked to my Dad.

Yes I have seen many instances of this(worked in nursing homes for years) you are not imagining things. And part of what hospices teaches family are the transition your loved one might go through where they seem to have one foot in this plane of existence and one foot in the next.

I've seen this over and over. My grandmother used to see children playing. The closer to death, the more common it is to experience it. I know that many believe that people hallucinate, etc. I, personally, find it gives me hope for an afterlife. I found much hope in the studies done by Thomas Edison near the end of his life. Even though I have been a very spiritual person my entire life, there was a point in my own recovery of a serious illness (cancer) where Dr.'s actually told me they would continue to treat the cancer, but that it was not working the way they thought it would. They would make me as comfortable as possible. Scary words. The scientific evidence gave my soul a leap and a bound. Everybody has their own personal journey down the path of life in terms of beliefs.

My mom has similar episodes (84, in nursing home). A very good book on this subject is "Final Gifts" written by two hospice nurses. I read it when my father died and now am reading it again. Also, I have been interested in the work of Peter Fenwick, speaking here on related subject http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-CXpReUpiM
You can Google search his name and find other information if interested.
My mom also sees and hears the children. She is currently in hospice, by the way for peripheral vascular disease. For the past year she has been visited by a choir, and the choir director, Will, wants to marry her.
No one in the family remembers anyone in her life named Will or a choir director. He could be a guardian angel, I suppose. But she says he is very rich and will take care of her. The story she tells is very elaborate and full of detail.
She's not on morphine or any drugs that could cause these delusions. She does not have a UTI; though she has one from time to time. BUT As I said, she has been speaking about Will for a year. The vascular wounds in her legs are very very bad and infected. Circulation is so poor that I doubt they'll really ever heal. And now she is on the second Z-pack for congestion. Even with all of this, she is able to speak pretty clearly, though at times it's more mush-mouthed. And she recognizes all of us who visit. I agree with the above comments that we all need help in the transitions of life to death.

My Mother does the same, but I think it is simply a function of the brain throwing off random "vision memories" or imaginations, as the brain function is burning out.
I am not against the angel or "other plane" theory. I think about this a lot, as I try to figure things out and understand 'why' about everything.
Just as we all have thoughts or triggered memories that seem to "pop" into our awareness, I believe it is the same with dementia and end of life hallucinations, our elders are just totally out of controlling what comes to them, However, I am going to check out the YouTube video, because it is a fascinating subject.
Blessings to you, yellowfever. Hugs, christina xo

This happens often in my family. I believe someone comes for us when it's our time. It's always been a family member, but not always who you think it would be. I find it comforting to know someone comes to take the dying family member's hand to help ease them on their way.
I've read and listened to interviews of explanations regarding how the brain works during this time. The visions and mind playing tricks.
I prefer to believe in my version.
It's hard to say how long they last. My mother has said my great-grandfather saw his daughter, who had passed several years before, for a few months before he passed. My grandmother saw a nephew who had passed the same year, but it was just a few days before she passed.
Believe what feels right to you.

Amen, Steelerfan. I believe that, too. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience on earth. Science does meet God.
My Mother is 94, advanced dementia, yet the last week or so, she has been more lucid. She is constantly talking to someone, but I cannot understand her very well. I try very hard to intuit. She reaches out to someone and I can hear her "half" of a conversation. It is very interesting,
I hope she is comforted, as she has always been afraid of death and never wanted to talk about end of life, even several years ago.
I know my brother will be there for her, as I feel him with me often. Oh, this life is a mystery and such a test. Happy New Year to All.

I just wanted to add, I don't believe it is only the elderly who has someone come to them. A good friend's 4 year-old had major surgery. He wasn't able to speak due to a breathing tube, however, he kept pointing to a corner of the room. There wasn't anything in the corner, not even a chair.
He passed away a few days later. As awful as it was to loose him, my friend found some comfort in what he was seeing in that corner.

The question of an "afterlife" can be discussed forever. There will always be folks on both sides. Some say that these "visions" are just the synaptic process of a dying brain. I say, if that were true, our experiences would be more similar. But each event I have heard about does not support that at all...scientifically, that is.

Believeing in an afterlife or a higher power is more a function of faith...you either have it or you don't. Since it cannot be proven definitively, that either exist, then the only "proof" we will have will come after our own death. Personally, I think that the evidence is too compelling to dismiss. I am a very analytical so, in my universe, science and faith co-exist. I think it is compelling that one of the greatest scientific minds in history, Albert Einstein, was a beliver in an afterlife. I am not so arrogant as to think that I know everything in this world and beyond. So, until someone proves to me, otherwise, I say that these episodes are a way of preparing us for the next life.

I also find it comforting knowing that someone whom we know and love will come back to "collect" us. I think the hereafter is so vast and beyond our human imagination, that this "transition" makes it easier for us to understand and accept.

And that, my friends, is my last "2 cents" for what is left of 2011....see you next year in 2012.

My grandfather's last hospital stay was the last week of his life. I was his caregiver, so I was at the hospital every single day as soon as they would allow. A day or so after he was admitted, I went in like I had before and sat down on a chair, only to have my grandfather tell me to get up and find somewhere else to sit because I was too big to sit on my grandmother's lap. I looked around for a woman who had been dead for over nine years by then, but I didn't see her. He was absolutely insistent that she was sitting in the chair.

I came to realize that just because I didn't have the eyes to see it, it didn't mean that God hadn't sent an angel who indeed looked like my grandmother to my grandfather. I'm absolutely convinced of it. It would make sense that our Heavenly Father wouldn't want us to be afraid to come home to Him. I think that God allowed Granddaddy to see her because of that very reason, so that he would know that everything was going to be fine. And I'm so grateful that the angel looked like Grandmama, because Granddaddy loved her so much and had missed her every moment they were apart. It made it easier in a way. I knew that he would be taken care of.

His funeral was twenty-eight years ago yesterday and still, I remember it all like it just happened. I don't think I could ever forget it.