diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/core.c b/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
index acc05adaa0d4..beed3940786b 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
@@ -95,6 +95,15 @@ bool nvme_change_ctrl_state(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl,
 			break;
 		}
 		break;
+	case NVME_CTRL_DEAD:
+		switch (old_state) {
+		case NVME_CTRL_DELETING:
+			changed = true;
+			/* FALLTHRU */
+		default:
+			break;
+		}
+		break;
 	default:
 		break;
 	}
@@ -1595,6 +1604,15 @@ void nvme_remove_namespaces(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)
 {
 	struct nvme_ns *ns, *next;
 
+	/*
+	 * The dead states indicates the controller was not gracefully
+	 * disconnected. In that case, we won't be able to flush any data while
+	 * removing the namespaces' disks; fail all the queues now to avoid
+	 * potentially having to clean up the failed sync later.
+	 */
+	if (ctrl->state == NVME_CTRL_DEAD)
+		nvme_kill_queues(ctrl);
+
 	mutex_lock(&ctrl->namespaces_mutex);
 	list_for_each_entry_safe(ns, next, &ctrl->namespaces, list)
 		nvme_ns_remove(ns);
diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h b/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h
index 114b92873894..1daa0482de0e 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h
+++ b/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ enum nvme_ctrl_state {
 	NVME_CTRL_LIVE,
 	NVME_CTRL_RESETTING,
 	NVME_CTRL_DELETING,
+	NVME_CTRL_DEAD,
 };
 
 struct nvme_ctrl {
diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/pci.c b/drivers/nvme/host/pci.c
index 4feaed591e83..3bdcf0e34fd6 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/host/pci.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/host/pci.c
@@ -2017,6 +2017,10 @@ static void nvme_remove(struct pci_dev *pdev)
 	nvme_change_ctrl_state(&dev->ctrl, NVME_CTRL_DELETING);
 
 	pci_set_drvdata(pdev, NULL);
+
+	if (!pci_device_is_present(pdev))
+		nvme_change_ctrl_state(&dev->ctrl, NVME_CTRL_DEAD);
+
 	flush_work(&dev->reset_work);
 	nvme_uninit_ctrl(&dev->ctrl);
 	nvme_dev_disable(dev, true);