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Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home
Telegraph ^
| February 1, 2010
| Tom Leonard
Posted on 02/02/2010 7:45:26 AM PST by C19fan
A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book.
Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring, sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong in their predictions over which patients were close to death.
The cat, now five and generally unsociable, was adopted as a kitten at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, Rhode Island, which specialises in caring for people with severe dementia.
Dr Dosa first publicised Oscar's gift in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Since then, the cat has gone on to double the number of imminent deaths it has sensed and convinced the geriatrician that it is no fluke.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: cat; death; elderly; kittyping; oscarthecat
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Nice thought these people in the last hours of their life are not alone.
1
posted on
02/02/2010 7:45:28 AM PST
by
C19fan
To: C19fan
Can we take up a collection to send Oscar to Washington?
2
posted on
02/02/2010 7:47:35 AM PST
by
Kartographer
(".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
To: C19fan
They already did this on House.
3
posted on
02/02/2010 7:48:47 AM PST
by
Redcloak
(Don't try this at home... I'm a professional!)
To: C19fan
I hate to say it but this shouldn’t be a tough call in a nursing home.
4
posted on
02/02/2010 7:49:57 AM PST
by
cripplecreek
(Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
To: C19fan
Nice thought these people in the last hours of their life are not alone. Unless the cat is murdering them all.
5
posted on
02/02/2010 7:50:27 AM PST
by
1rudeboy
To: C19fan
Have they checked to make sure the cat isn’t somehow pulling plugs out of the wall sockets?
To: cripplecreek
I hate to say it but this shouldnt be a tough call in a nursing home.
LOL! I think Oscar just prefers the bed that is very still.
7
posted on
02/02/2010 7:51:45 AM PST
by
ZX12R
To: C19fan
nom nom nom, ur soulz they haz a flavor
To: ZX12R
You’re probably pretty close to right. A bed with someone who doesn’t mess with the cat looking for a warm spot to sleep.
9
posted on
02/02/2010 7:54:11 AM PST
by
cripplecreek
(Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
To: C19fan
I would shoot that cat if he started towards my room!!!
10
posted on
02/02/2010 7:54:24 AM PST
by
TWfromTEXAS
(Life is the one choice that pro choicers will not support.)
To: Anitius Severinus Boethius
11
posted on
02/02/2010 7:56:44 AM PST
by
cripplecreek
(Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
To: cripplecreek
Yes, but it’s still a prediction that the medical experts familiar with the patients missed.
12
posted on
02/02/2010 7:57:48 AM PST
by
Let's Roll
(Stop paying ACORN to destroy America! Cut off their government funding!)
To: C19fan
13
posted on
02/02/2010 7:57:49 AM PST
by
SnakeDoctor
(Life is tough; it's tougher if you're stupid. -- John Wayne)
To: C19fan
Did they all have cat allergies?
I think if I lived there would get a puppy.
14
posted on
02/02/2010 7:58:25 AM PST
by
DYngbld
(I have read the back of the Book and we WIN!!!!)
To: C19fan
Grip reaper cat. How long before people club it to death as it peeks in someone’s room?
15
posted on
02/02/2010 8:00:41 AM PST
by
Malsua
To: C19fan
...ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours...Was he curling up on their faces?
16
posted on
02/02/2010 8:05:51 AM PST
by
FReepaholic
(Pork chops are most satisfying. Mmmmmm. Dangle them from the ceiling)
To: C19fan; Slings and Arrows; Glenn; republicangel; Bahbah; Beaker; BADROTOFINGER; etabeta; ...
To: TWfromTEXAS
Proof that cats are evil.
To: C19fan
To: C19fan
Do the residents dread seeing the cat come towards their rooms?
Is it possible that some just give up on living if the cat comes into the room?
20
posted on
02/02/2010 8:12:09 AM PST
by
Between the Lines
(AreYouWhoYouSayYouAre? Esse Quam Videri - To Be, Rather Than To Seem)
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