Doctor casts new light on cat that can predict death
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It usually means the patient has less than four hours to live. Oscar was described as generally aloof and "not a cat that's friendly to people", sometimes, for example, hissing at people when he wanted to be left alone. I remember one day this lady was awake week before she died, her family was in room with her while I was giving her med. Far from recoiling from Oscar's presence, now they know its significance, relatives and friends of patients have been comforted and sometimes praised the cat in newspaper death notices and eulogies, said Dr Dosa. Oscar is occasionally caught sleeping on the job.In 2013, Oscar nearly died himself when he suffered a severe allergic reaction that caused his heart to stop for several seconds. Fortunately, his brief foray to the other side doesn’t seem to have affected his supernatural abilities.
- 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. Oscar typically arrives at a dying patient's bedside a few hours before death, Dosa says, but sometimes a half day before. His presence has been a comfort to many family members, Dosa says. And his presence, coupled with a resident's worsening state of health, can help alert the nursing home staff to let family members know the patient may be nearing death.
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But a cat in a Providence, R.I., nursing home, an animal shelter refugee named Oscar, seems to have a sixth sense about when residents in the home's advanced dementia unit are about to pass away. And his actions can sometimes help alert the staff to notify family members in time for them to get to the nursing home to tell their loved ones goodbye. After Oscar accurately predicted 25 deaths, staff started calling family members of residents as soon as they discovered him sleeping next to a patient in order to notify them and give them an opportunity to say goodbye before the impending death.
No one's certain if Oscar's behaviour is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behaviour of the nurses who raised him. She had passed away week later, I had to time her death and notifty our RN and they contact the family. I had to prepare her as request to put her in normal clothes instead of gown, I did that even tho it was CNA work to do but I decide to do it myself since I work closely with this resident.
Do you think Oscar the cat has special natural abilities?
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, recognize their spouses and spend their days lost in fragments of memory. Oscar the rescue cat is not simply a welcome feline companion at the Steere nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island. According to a new report in a medical journal he has a remarkable, though morbid talent - predicting when patients will die. It's usually the last stop for people so ill they cannot speak, recognize their spouses and spend their days lost in fragments of memory. An excerpt of Dosa's article describes an account where the cat rightfully predicted a resident's death.
As Oscar's reputation grew, so did appreciation for his mission. "The largest hospice organization in the state presented him with a certificate ... acknowledging his work," Dosa says. 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. February 22, 2022) was a therapy cat who as of 2005 lived in the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
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No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him. She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call.
Dosa said several patients are composite characters, though the names and stories of the caregivers he interviews are real and many feel guilty. Donna Richards told Dosa that she felt guilty for putting her mother in a nursing home. When caring for her mother, Richards felt guilty about missing her teenage son’s swimming meets. However, Oscar would not stay inside the woman's room and Dr Teno thought this meant his correct streak had been broken. Instead, it turned out her prediction was about 10 hours too early, and during the patient's final two hours Oscar joined the woman at her bedside. "He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said David Dosa, an expert in geriatric care who described the phenomenon in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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As of 2015, it was believed that Oscar accurately predicted 100 deaths. On a whim, he wrote an essay about Oscar and submitted it to The New England Journal of Medicine, known more for its scientific reports on chemotherapy regimens, drug reactions, infections, and heart defects than reports on feline behavior. Oscar also offers much-needed comfort to the terminally ill residents who would have otherwise died alone. His gift was first revealed in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007 and since then he is believed to have presided over the deaths of around 100 people.
He came to public attention in 2007 when he was featured in an article by geriatrician David Dosa in the New England Journal of Medicine. According to Dr. Dosa, Oscar appeared able to predict the impending death of terminally ill patients by choosing to nap next to them a few hours before they died. Hypotheses for this ability include that Oscar was picking up on the lack of movement in such patients or that he could smell biochemicals released by dying cells. He's accurate enough that the staff - including Dosa - know it's time to call family members when Oscar stretches beside their patients, who are generally too ill to notice his presence.
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. A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book. I figure, he got keen at it by growing up as a kitten, but other than that...pretty much animals know when something's up with people. It's the same thing as the dogs that are able to predict when their guardian will have a seizure.
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. "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.
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