The problem is that physicians and carers often do not know how to support their patients, or what to say to them.
Nevertheless, there is now a growing realisation amongst medical practitioners and nursing staff that deathbed phenomena do happen. In fact, one of the interviewees referred to death as 'the enemy' - so medical professionals have to find their own way of dealing with death and of making sense of what they are witnessing as the patient dies. Within the medical fraternity, death is normally viewed as a failure. Traditionally, deathbed phenomena are not addressed during medical or nursing training. This soothed and reassured the mother, because she believed her daughter had been collected by the angel and was being cared for in death. The night before her daughter died, the mother saw an angel standing at the end of the child' s bed. Her friend had a three-year-old daughter who was critically ill.
A couple of weeks before she went into hospital, she told her mother she had seen the 'Angel of Death'. At the time, the manager put it down to a lack of oxygen, but now thinks there may be more to it.Ī more disturbing story I heard was about a young woman who was to be admitted to hospital for a routine operation. The manager of a counselling centre with which I am associated recounted a couple of days before her mother died that her mother repeatedly called out, 'I'm coming! I'm coming!' to a blank wall. This provided immense comfort to her aunt. Let me give a few examples which have come to light in the course of the research I have been doing:Ī work colleague told me that her aunt talked of seeing and smelling flowers just before she died. They inspire what I would describe as 'awe' in those who talk about them. They are witnessed by people from all walks of life and in all kinds of situations. Irrespective of sceptical comment, deathbed phenomena happen. Our deathbed research project is in answer to a plea from palliative carers who want to understand how they can provide better support for patients during the dying process.
0 kommentar(er)
