BMJ  2007;335:175 (28 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.39287.382650.4E

News

The end is nigh

Janice Hopkins Tanne

New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Oscar the cat has an "uncanny ability" to predict impending death among residents of a dementia ward at the Steere House nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island—even people not known to be terminally ill.

"He's not the friendliest cat. He keeps to himself, although he can be bribed with food," said geriatrician David Dosa, of Brown University, who has published his findings about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine (2007;357:328-9).

Oscar, who's usually aloof, identifies patients who will die within hours by snuggling next to them, purring, and comforting them. In the year and a half he's lived in the third floor dementia ward, he has identified more than 25 patients who were near to death. And he's never made a mistake, Dr Dosa told the BMJ.

"His mere presence is viewed by physicians and nursing home staff as an almost absolute indicator of impending death, allowing . . . [Full text of this article]


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