A Physician Is Visited in a Dream By a Patient Needing Help

As a Family Doctor since 1998, synchronicity has accompanied me my whole life, even before I became a Physician.

One night, I vividly dreamed of my aging female patient who was in a nursing home. She had been fine, but in my dream, she asked me to visit her. The next morning, I was still thinking of her on my way to my work and noticed I had some time to drop by, which I never do. I stopped at the nursing home.

Nurse: “What are you doing here?”

Me: “I don’t know. My patient came to me in my dream and asked for help.”

Nurse: “I cannot believe it. The whole weekend, I was trying to get the on-call doctors to come, and no one called back.” (In Germany where I practice, nursing homes or patients cannot call me. They must call the on-call doctors, who might come to visit or, as with this patient, won’t even call back.)

Me: “Well, I’m here. What’s going on?”

Nurse: “The patient is weak and feels she’s dying. Her children are here; they know it’s time for her to leave. She is in her dying process, but it’s painful, full of anguish. I believe some opiate would help, and I cannot find a doctor willing to give her a bit of opiate.”

Me (opening my bag): “The opiate is here.”

I went to the patient’s room where her children were sitting quietly and explained that their mom had called me in my dream. They wept, and I was touched by it. I rarely see families who patiently sit by their dying loved ones and make sure they have time to say farewell.

My small syringe helped her breathe quietly. My visit helped me say goodbye, touch her, and get to know her lovely family. I then rushed back to work. Some hours later she died peacefully — no anguish, no pain.