X-Message-Number: 26803
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 22:18:16 -0400
From: Randolfe Wicker <>
Subject: Warning time before death

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Thomas Donaldson refers to a study which found 83% of dying patients have a 
week's warning time before death.


I've taken care of two dying people for months on end.  One day, one of them 
replied to me when I said upon leaving:"See you later."--"If I am still here."


I told this to a mutual friend who was a physician.  She told me that "whenever 
a patient says he/she is dying, you can count on that being the case."


She came over and quietly counted the breaths and heartbeats per minute, told me
he couldn't last much longer.


Both the patient and the physician were right.  I'd been given patches to ease 
his discomfort while dying.  The next morning, he never awoke and was in obvious
discomfort.  I put on the patches and he died three hours later.


So, regardless of how "optimistic" the physician might be, patients have the 
innate ability to frequently ignore misleading advice and deal with the fact 
that they are dying.
Randolfe (Randy) Wicker

Videographer, Writer, Activist
Avisor: The Immortality Institute
Hoboken, NJ



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