i'm in ur bedz...

[yermom]

sukcing out ur soulz :eek:

http://hosted.ap.org/photos/9/96b17ad5-cd62-406a-a2eb-555336079d55-big.jpg

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DEATH_CAT?SITE=CTNHR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


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.

[Dio]

I'm in ur nursing homez, heering ur deth rattlez

[slickdawg]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070725/ap_on_fe_st/death_cat

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - 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.

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"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa 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.

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill

She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.

Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.

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.

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.

If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.

Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.

Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."

___

Science writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

[Okla-homey]

or "When this cat comes callin' your vital signs are falling."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6917113.stm


US cat 'predicts patient deaths'

Oscar meows in protest if removed from the room of a dying patient
A US cat that is reportedly able to sense when a nursing home's residents are about to die is baffling doctors.
Oscar has a habit of curling up next to patients at the home in Providence, Rhode Island, in their final hours.

According to the author of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the two-year-old cat has been observed to be correct in 25 cases so far.

Staff now alert the families of residents when he sits down next to their ailing loved one.

"He doesn't make many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," David Dosa, a professor at Brown University who carried out the research, told the Associated Press news agency.

'Premonitions'

Oscar was adopted as a kitten at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre.

Cats often can sense when their owners are sick or when another animal is sick

Thomas Graves, feline expert

The cat is said to do his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses at the home, but is not generally friendly to patients.

Although most families are grateful for the warning Oscar seems to provide, some relatives ask that the pet be taken away while they say their last goodbyes to their loved ones.

When put outside the room, Oscar is said to pace up and down meowing in protest.

Thomas Graves, a feline expert from the University of Illinois, told the BBC: "Cats often can sense when their owners are sick or when another animal is sick.

"They can sense when the weather will change, they're famous for being sensitive to premonitions of earthquakes."

A doctor who treats patients at the home said she believed there was probably a biochemical explanation, rather than the cat being psychic.

[StoopTroup]

I'm pretty sure that I'd feel better curling up with a 22 year old hawt female nurse than a cat.

Once the cat comes into the room...call the hawt nurse.

[mxATVracer10]

I always knew cats were the debil....

[StoopTroup]

I always knew cats were the debil....
At the very least...

The Grim Reaper.

:pop:

[garland sooner]

did anybody think that maybe the cat is diseased and it overwhelms the patients' conditions?

eh. you're probably right. it is a devil cat.

[yermom]

that would take more than 4 hours, right?

there is probably something physiological going on, like their breathing or something is changing, or their body temperature or something else external that the cat can percieve that people aren't able to tell that attracts the cat.

[StuIsTheMan]

that would take more than 4 hours, right?

there is probably something physiological going on, like their breathing or something is changing, or their body temperature or something else external that the cat can percieve that people aren't able to tell that attracts the cat.


http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/blog%20caveman.jpg
What?

[garland sooner]

I'm by ur bedz, using mai fully operational death stare.

[silverwheels]

...NOOOOOO! he be stealin my life!

[yermom]

ur soul has a flavr

[Chuck Bao]

You must not read from the Book of the Dead!!!

[StuIsTheMan]

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/1548/89403022f06fa2e78fze6.jpg (http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/)
Steal'n yir babiez breathz