I love stories like this...
Oscar the Cat Predicts Patients' Deaths
Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.
"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.
Labels: cat blogging, links
ms. jared shits you not at
3:36 PM
2 Comments:
I read that it was pretty cool!
Gayle
By
Ms. Gayle, at July 25, 2007 11:46 PM
Da Spouse told me about this one today. When he didn't get the expected response of disbelieving surprise, he gave me a look of, well, disbelieving surprise.
Cloo: I've always lived with pets (cats + dogs), whereas he had a dog, once, for about six months.
I can completely see a cat behaving like that. The pets I've lived with (dogs included) have always been very empathetic / sympathetic / empathic (hard to tell which one) , so the idea that a cat can pick up on a subtle change in a patient that we humans overlook (because we have a lot of empirical evidence to pay attention to, mind) seems to be a logical one.
By
nightgigjo, at July 28, 2007 9:39 PM
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