A number think the NDE is an endorphin-generated protective device, designed to cushion the dying brain from terror and panic. Hitchcock, shortly before his death One of the problems of writing a book is all the great stuff you have to leave out. I can understand the impulse. You've found all this neat stuff and you want to grab the reader by the sleeve, a la the ancient Mariner, fix him with your glittering eye, and tell him about the Battle of Midway or the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Or about the things people say when they're about to die.
Some last words are ghastly.
Other last words are touching. Bert Lahr's nurse bent over him, thinking he was calling for help, and then realized he was going through the motions of one of his vaudeville routines. I don't want to go home in the dark. A number of people seem to have seen loved ones who had died. Harriet Beecher Stowe repeatedly murmured the name of her son Fred.