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 ...
My pleasure. Oscar is great!
That article was satire.
I took a break today from blogging and this article from original source will have a link and a blogged posting tomorrow. :)=^..^=
Kind of gives a new meaning to the concept of cat scans.
Now you've done it. Somebody at the nursing home is going to figure out they got one last billing opportunity there. "Cat Scan: $995". And when the doc comes along and says "Yep, she's dead.", then you get "Physician confirms Cat Scan: $995" to go with it.
LOL :) My thoughts too. Surely just a coincidence that he’s around each time somebody expires ;) We don’t need Columbo for this one.
Orange/yellow/buff cats usually have good personalities—just my observation.
Isn’t that a Lynyrd Skynyrd song?
Not a gift, a demon.
It occurs to me that the cat may go to where there is a lot of activity from the nursing staff etc. My cats were always looking for attention.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.