death

This is Dying Matters Week.

Freud suggested that we can’t imagine our own death.

I’ve tried and I can although it isn’t a comfortable or pleasant.

The cost of loneliness (Roubles, dollars or robots?)

One patient recently attempted to resuscitate her (toy) baby when the batteries ran-out.

The offer of a natural death.

Occasionally the nurse in attendance might advise the paramedics or the doctors, ‘He was 100 years old, he was very unwell,’

the unusual story of what happens afterwards

Anyway, death is out there.

This afternoon I described death.

In the Yorkshire and Humber Clinical Network for Dementia we are working to increase knowledge and understanding of delirium. This is a state of reversible confusion and disorientation that occurs more frequently in those living with dementia and at times can be mistaken for dementia itself. It isn’t, dementia, that is. It is different, withContinue reading “This afternoon I described death.”

Manor Field Surgery Blog #5 DNACPR

100 years ago, dying in your sleep in your 70’s was the considered a good-innings. Where will we be in another 100 years?

Sorry to start your Sunday morning with a morbid topic, but there you go. I have been thinking about my experiences of death – indeed those of any doctor working in a hospital and those of people in general. They are different worlds. Last night I watched a little of ‘New Amsterdam’ with my sonContinue reading “Death”

Death

OK. This might not be the best title for Boxing Day. I can’t get away from it however; Perhaps The writing will help me move-on. Last night I watched a programme about Tommy Cooper. Fez Silly jokes & just like that He was present through my childhood. His final day Summed-upContinue reading “Death”

Bacteria

Better to fail in a failed system than to undertake an experiment with the same outcome.

Dead

Dead, the moment the breathing ceases and, the heart stops. Relaxation of muscles, slackening of tone sighing-out of self and, move-on to the next stage, the next phase of being. Still there still existent within the memories, sentiments, ripples of existence, but, Transformed. Different. decay, devolution, evolution, transformation. Not necessarily sad,Continue reading “Dead”

Tell me what has been happening.

This is how I often start, begin the conversation, listen to the story from the perspective of the husband or wife, son or daughter. They tell me about my patient, the deterioration, the frequent acknowledgment that things are getting worse, that they see the future. And, the system, the trying to do itsContinue reading “Tell me what has been happening.”

Death by drowning

It is like squeezing in to too small shoes. It can be done, it is awkward and, you can get about, but you look odd and you will soon get blisters.

In your sleep – (Safe in heaven, dead/)

It is an odd thought – dying in your sleep. Pyjamas, tooth brush, perhaps a few pages of a novel and no more. Your eyes close and at some point, in the night, heart stops. Dead. This is what it is to be alive. Precarious, a tightrope of existence or not. The mechanismContinue reading “In your sleep – (Safe in heaven, dead/)”