While we often hear that passing away peacefully in one's sleep at a ripe old age is the ideal way to go, the reality can be starkly different. It's led one to expose some startling last-minute confessions she's witnessed from patients on their deathbeds.

In an unexpected twist, one such confession took place moments before the patient, went on to make a remarkable recovery and live on for an additional two years. Joining a discussion entitled 'What are some of the most memorable death bed confessions you've had a patient give?', the nurse detailed her experience caring for a 90 year old gentleman.

The man was poised to embrace his final slumber, content with a life seemingly well-lived, and eager to rectify past wrongs. She relayed: "I had a client confess to his wife and children that while he was away on business, he obtained another family."

Astonishingly, rather than passing away, he recovered remarkably, continued to live for another two years, and, as the nurse divulged: "Wife and children kind of cast him off. He thought he was dying immediately of , they were multimillionaires, he tried to spend as much as he could out of spite so his children wouldn't inherit any of it."

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Meanwhile, another patient left his expression of acceptance for his son until his dying breath, as a nurse recalled: "'The only thing I regret in life is not telling my baby boy (who I found out was 20 at the time) that I accept him'."

One individual shared: "It didn't hit hard until she was told that his son was a transgender male and it chocked her up a lot and even chocked me up a bit, sadly he died before he could tell him a few hours later (the man was roughly 50 and had terminal cancer)."

However, it's not just nurses who are privy to these final confessions - sometimes it's other emergency workers or simply family members. Another user revealed: "My husband isn't a nurse, but he is a police officer. He has heard 'quite a few' dying declarations at crime scenes. People confessing to crimes, witnesses to crimes or telling cops all the info about something. It is admissible and he had to write everything down. Crazy stuff."

Some people, however, keep their sense of humour right up until the end, with one user sharing: "My dad loves small town auctions and over the years he collected all those boxes of stuff that would go for the lowest bid. He amassed quite a collection, filling the garage and a workshop out back. He always promised mum he'd sell it all some day in some big garage sale or auction of his own."

"Then one day my mum's cancer returned and the doctors told us this time it wasn't a fair fight. Two weeks before she passed I was sitting with her in the hospital. We'd run out of things to say. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the pain, and said, 'Thank god at least I won't have to deal with your dads stuff'. Me and mum burst out laughing. Don't tell my dad."