A hospice nurse has revealed some ways to die she has seen would make her want to “end my own life” but that there are also “pretty nice” ways to go.
Julie McFadden, a hospice nurse in California, has millions of views on her TikTok account @hospicenursejulie and says on her website “I educate people on the death and dying process and help them through it”.
Speaking in a recent Problem Solved podcast, Ms McFadden detailed her experience of the different ways people come to meet their end, and those ways which seemed for her the most hard.
Ms McFadden picked out ALS, which is also known as Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in the UK, as a “really bad” way to die.
She told the podcast: “I think ALS is one of the worst. ALS is really bad. If I ever got ALS, I think I would take medical aid and dying, like I would probably end up taking medicine to end my own life.
“I just wouldn’t want to do it. That’s a tough one.”
According to the NHS website, motor neurone disease (MND) is an uncommon condition that affects the brain and nerves. It causes weakness that gets worse over time.
It states: “There’s no cure for MND, but there are treatments to help reduce the impact it has on a person’s daily life. Some people live with the condition for many years. MND can significantly shorten life expectancy and, unfortunately, eventually leads to death.”
Continuing her thoughts on the end of life, Ms McFadden said that she also thought brain tumours were “pretty tough” and “usually happen to young people”.
She added: “It’s just hard because it’s your brain, and your brain does a lot of stuff, when there’s tumours there, it messes things up.”
Revealing she thought not all ways to die can be horrendous, Ms McFadden said chronic kidney disease can be “pretty gentle” in the final stages.
She added: “You kind of have this long-standing chronic illness, so that’s not good. You’ve had to be on dialysis three days a week for 10 years, so that’s a long road and it can be difficult.
“But the end of that is pretty nice. You just stop dialysis and you go to sleep and then you die within seven days. ‘People say, “I just want to fall asleep and die,” and that’s how it is for kidney disease.’
If you have been affected by any of the conditions mentioned, or are seeking help or advice, please visit the NHS website on end of life care.