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Thursday, July 26, 2007

oscar




PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) -- 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 the patient has less than four hours to live.
Oscar the cat doesn't like to be put out in the hall when a patient is dying.


"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," Dr. David Dosa said 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.
The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.
After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.
Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said............

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Weird. Believable, but weird.

Michele Boselli said...

Hello Lady Rose!
This is Londradical after a long time.
My blog was stolen (!) one year ago by some japanese guy.
I now have a new blog:
http://misswelby.blogspot.com/
where I've already linked you.
Can I ask you to be so kind to update the URL of the "Londradical" link?
Thanks and visit my new place!

Unknown said...

rick, saw a great video (on cnn or msnbc) yesterday with oscar. oh i believe it. no question about it. i do think animals have senses we can only dream about (for now that is)

i'll change my link miss welby! if it doesn't work right now (sometimes my template is a bit tempermental), i'll keep trying till it DOES work. NICE to hear from you!