A care home nurse who has witnessed hundreds of deaths says people tend to say the same thing in their final moments.
Julie McFadden, widely known online as Hospice Nurse Julie, has spent years caring for patients at the end of their lives. Through that work, she has noticed clear patterns in what people reflect on as they are dying.
McFadden has built a large following by speaking openly about death and dying. She has more than half a million followers on Instagram, over 1.7 million on TikTok, and hundreds of thousands of YouTube subscribers.
She is also the author of Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully, a New York Times bestseller.
What People Regret Most
In a 2024 appearance on Rob Moore’s Disruptors podcast, McFadden explained that many patients express regret about how they lived their lives.
One common wish, she said, is spending less time at work. Many patients tell her they wish they had focused more on family, rest, and enjoyment rather than careers.
But she says there is one regret she hears even more often.
“The main thing people say,” McFadden explained, “is ‘I wish I would have appreciated my health.’”
She added that many people only realize how valuable their health was once it is gone.
Lessons She Took From Her Patients
McFadden has tried to apply those lessons to her own life. She says she now makes a gratitude list every night.
She focuses on simple things many people overlook. Being able to breathe easily. Walking without pain. Feeling the sun on her skin.
“I hear people say it over and over,” she said. “They wish they would have appreciated how good they felt before.”
Health Warnings From Experience
Outside of end-of-life care, McFadden also speaks about habits she avoids based on what she has seen professionally.
She has said she would never smoke or vape, drink alcohol daily, or ride motorcycles or ATVs. She warns that vaping harms more than just the lungs and that alcohol-related deaths from liver disease are common and preventable.
After seeing so many lives end, McFadden says the message is simple: appreciate your health while you have it.
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Hospice Nurse Julie
