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Cat Predicts Deaths At Nursing Home
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» recoil replied on Mon Feb 1, 2010 @ 11:36am |
 Coolness: 87250 | [ www.thespec.com ]
Tabby knows who's about to die, and stays with them Ray Henry The Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Feb 1, 2010) The scientist in Dr. David Dosa was skeptical when first told that Oscar, an aloof cat kept by a nursing home, regularly predicted patients' deaths by snuggling alongside them in their final hours. Dosa's doubts eroded after he and his colleagues tallied about 50 correct calls made by Oscar over five years, a process he explains in a book released this week, Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat. The feline's bizarre talent astounds Dosa, but he finds Oscar's real worth in his fierce insistence on being present when others turn away from life's most uncomfortable topic: death. "People actually were taking great comfort in this idea, that this animal was there and might be there when their loved ones eventually pass," Dosa said. "He was there when they couldn't be." Dosa, 37, a geriatrician and professor at Brown University, works on the third floor of the Steere House, which treats patients with severe dementia. It's usually the last stop for people so ill they cannot speak or recognize their spouses and spend their days lost in fragments of memory. Dosa once feared that families would be horrified by the furry grim reaper, especially after he made Oscar famous in a 2007 essay in the New England Journal of Medicine. Instead, he says, many caregivers consider Oscar a comforting presence, and some have praised him in newspaper death notices and eulogies. "Maybe they're seeing what they want to see," he said, "but what they're seeing is a comfort to them in a real difficult time in their lives." The nursing home adopted Oscar in 2005 because its staff thinks pets make the Steere House a home. They play with visiting children and prove a welcome distraction for patients and doctors alike. After a year, the staff noticed that Oscar would spend his days pacing from room to room. He sniffed and looked at the patients but rarely spent much time with anyone -- except when they had just hours to live. He's accurate enough that the staff know it's time to call family members when Oscar stretches beside their patients, who are generally too ill to notice his presence. If kept outside the room of a dying patient, he'll scratch at doors and walls, trying to get in. Nurses once placed Oscar in the bed of a patient they thought gravely ill. Oscar wouldn't stay put, and the staff thought his streak was broken. Turns out, the medical professionals were wrong, and the patient rallied for two days. But in the final hours, Oscar held his bedside vigil without prompting. Dosa does not explain Oscar scientifically in his book, although he theorizes the cat imitates the nurses who raised him or smells odours given off by dying cells, perhaps like some dogs who scientists say can detect cancer using their scent. At its heart, Dosa's search is more about how people cope with death than Oscar's purported ability to predict it. Dosa suffers from inflammatory arthritis, which could render his joints useless. He worries about losing control of his life in old age, much as his patients have lost theirs. Parts of his book are fictionalized. Dosa said several patients are composite characters, though the names and stories of the caregivers he interviews are real and many feel guilty for things such as putting their parent in a nursing home. Dosa learns to live for the moment, much like Oscar, who delights in naps and chin scratches or the patient who recovers enough to walk the hall holding the hand of the husband she'll eventually forget. The doctor advises worried family members to simply be present for their loved ones. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Masa replied on Mon Feb 1, 2010 @ 11:52am |
 Coolness: 159515 | Heard about that particular story a while ago. I think it's cute, even if somewhat morbid ;)
Cats are extremely perceptive animals, I don't think anyone who owns one can deny that :) |
| I'm feeling my swagga back right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Screwhead replied on Mon Feb 1, 2010 @ 2:13pm |
 Coolness: 686335 | the book part is new, but the story is at least 4-5 years old, if not more.. |
| I'm feeling like a drama magnet right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» raisinlove replied on Tue Feb 2, 2010 @ 12:46pm |
 Coolness: 63695 | my cat detects when im about to take a shit |
| I'm feeling subverting the world right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Daf replied on Tue Feb 2, 2010 @ 12:51pm |
 Coolness: 186100 | my cats detects when it's time to eat
all day long me and him have a love and hate relation (is there any other kind of relation, really?) |
| I'm feeling kiss me, im shitface right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» MelooDie replied on Tue Feb 2, 2010 @ 3:20pm |
 Coolness: 249320 | I was in a friend's house in quebec city, and suddenly the cat starts running and jump to the window really wierdly and fast! A second or two after ,there was a big car crash just the other side of the street.I dunno if it was a luck ,but that creeped me out haha. Cats are strange seriously. |
| I'm feeling intense! right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» raisinlove replied on Wed Feb 3, 2010 @ 12:44am |
| Coolness: 63695 | Originally Posted By MELOODIE
I was in a friend's house in quebec city, and suddenly the cat starts running and jump to the window really wierdly and fast! A second or two after ,there was a big car crash just the other side of the street.I dunno if it was a luck ,but that creeped me out haha. Cats are strange seriously. He probably got excited about a bird flying about, which then panicked when it saw the cat inside the house, thinking of it's impending death, so in a furious flutter for it's life, it flew right into the windshield of an incoming car, which tried to swerve as the bird came crashing, resulting in a spectacular accident a mere 12 seconds later, amazing all the humans surrounding the cat, who had no idea what just happened. |
| I'm feeling subverting the world right now.. | |
Cat Predicts Deaths At Nursing Home
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