Approaching death

My uncle suddenly died in his mid-fifties about two years ago. It was rupture of a gastric artery aneyrusm. He had felt sudden pain in his stomach in the afternoon and was taken to a hospital. They made tests and gave him blood, but couldn't find out, what's wrong with him. He was in pain and lost blood, until finally died after resuscitation attempts during the night.

Autopsy confirmed the cause of death, but the doctors said, in his case they couldn't have helped him, even if they had known to operate him immediately. The doctors said, it is not so rare for a man his age, who is basically healthy and hasn't had the need to see a doctor. The artery has slowly calcified without pain giving any indication of the developing condition.

However, I've been wondering, could he possibly have known about the approaching death. For some time before he died, he had been carving angel figures. He was a religious man, so angels had symbolical meaning to him.

Do you think, that human body and brain might somehow register the health condition and the person would subconsciously react? I'm not necessarily talking about this in religious or spiritual sense.

 

I have had a brain one Doris. Its like being whacked in the head with an axe, and the axe stays there, and the end you didnt get hit with is wide and wedged there, and the pain is an utter bastard. Only drug that worked was morphine, and I only got one lot of that. Lumbar puncture to confirm diagnosis, and cat scan of head, then another lumbar puncture - after several attempts failed - thats when I got the morphine.
Leading up to this - and hindsight is great isnt it - I had like phantom smells - hot buttered toast that had been popped back under the grill for the butter to bubble. I have little/no sense of smell now - so I think the two are linked.

I knew I was heading for something bad, a near death that I would survive, because my dead dog bought me a message in my sleep. Of course she didnt speak to me, I think it was my gran or my great aunt that was with her, and Lucie was all plump and well, and I picked her up and cried because I had, as I told her, thought she was dead. Of course, come morning, I had lost my old venerable one and had to cry through the dissapointment.

When I was told I was likely to shortly kick the bucket, I already knew. I think dogs know when they have had enough too, and that they hope for the last kindness - not to leave them suffering with no joy in life.
I dont know if thats the answer you wanted, but best I can do.

 

Wow cc, that's quite a story. Glad that you are here to share it.

 

Hi Craven. Life is fleeting isnt it. Suddenly years become shorter, and its like all the time is just about gone. Dad used to laugh at people calling themselves 'middle aged' at 50 - he would say, how many of them think they are going to make it to 100.

 

That's quite an experience, Chinese Crest. I think it goes with the topic. In my uncle's case though, I believe his body and brain might have been aware of the threatened health for a longer period of time. Does this sound too insane?

There are so many functions in our brains, we are unaware of, but what if we could "read" the status of our brain more consciously?

I'm suggesting a person could hunch the death approaching in case there is a developing health condition, I'm not saying he can predict an accident happening to them. My uncle had not expressed any doubts, that he would be ill. Condition like his develops slowly though, but like the doctors said, he may not have had recognizable symptoms at all until the fatal rupture.

 

Its a 50/50 survival thing with the brain ones I think. He may well have thought he had a bit of an upset tum - it was explained to me by one of the surgeons juniors that its like if you have a flat tyre on your bike, and you start pumping it up, but the innertube has come out between tyre and wheel rim. I had one blown and two about to, so yes, he might have felt some small obstruction.
I think you can feel death loitering. I know death, we fight a lot over animals, I know when he is waiting for a scrap. Maybe in animals I am looking at the unspoken, but they do seem to know death is hovering, and quite often, I think they are glad to slip into sleep because they have had enough of tiredness and pain. Of course, they can die of a broken heart too - like Theo and Liam who died in Afghanistan. I think people can die of a broken heart too.
I know one day death will be my friend.

 

after my heart attack i've learned to look at things in a differrent light. seems as though so has my wife. i will say that a few days before hy heart attack i found myself telling my wife how much she ment to me. but i wasnt sure why

 

Yes, they do.
One of the first things I learned in my job is that when someone says they are going to die, they do. Some mentioned it several days before but most within 24 hours of actually passing.

 

I believe that we all know subconsciously when physical death is approaching. We have far more unconscious resources than most people would imagine. What we unfortunately think of as "death" is actually a transition - your uncle was preparing even though he wasn't consciously aware.

 

My grandmother was predicting her last days, for about 6 years. She was sure it would be over 'this' year. Finally she was right in December, at age 96.

You don't always know. That doesn't mean that some can't feel it coming though.

 

Ninety six, a very respectable span of years.
The crucial difference is in what the subconscious mind knows and what the conscious mind believes. The degree to which the subconscious and conscious are able to communicate is a very individual matter.

 

Humans are incredibly resilient and the abuse the body takes and "survives" can be amazing. In fact, just the idea that the entire complex organism manages to function for so many years is mind-boggling when you consider just how many different ways we can die or kill ourselves.

My own father had almost no liver function for the last 7 years of his life. When first diagnosed with cirrhosis we were told he would never get out of intensive care. Then, for the next 7 years, we'd hear that once a year when he'd end up back in there. Every time he got out.

The last time it was obvious that even if he got out of the hospital, he would not be able to live a semblance of a normal life. The day before he died I went in to visit him and was told by the doctor he wouldn't make it this time. I said, yeah, sure, I've heard THAT before. When I went into his room, he was awake, lucid, and recognised me (it is incredibly disturbing when your parent does not recognise you). Or so I thought. He started to tell me about having gone out to dinner the week before with my mother. Not so strange until you realise she had died 25 years earlier. I think he had finally realised his body was worn out beyond hope, and was preparing to die. I like to think, like CC with her dog and grandmother/aunt, that my mother was there for him at that time. It certainly makes me feel better.

 

I miss my grandma... I wish I had visited more.

 

This boggles my mind as well - life sticks hard on us. You look at yourself at 40+ and think of all those things that could have killed you by accident, yet nothing happened.