Does Death Have A Smell?

[AngelfireRN]

Just wondering if anyone else has experiences like this?

I first noticed it when I was in nursing school, and we were orienting on the floor. We would go in a room with a patient, and I would smell this sicky-sweet odor, and around a week later, the patient would be dead.

It continues to this day. I have smelled Lord knows how many smells, but this one almost defies description. The only way I can compare it to anything is to think of really concentrated Swish and Swallow, that nystatin stuff. I love the way it smells, but this other smell is like S&S overkill.

I finally started piecing it together when I noticed a pattern with the smell and the demise. My instructors never could understand why I would walk into a room to help, and get a weird look on my face. My co-workers later could not understand it, they just knew something was up by the look on my face. It was especially sad when the patient was thought to be improving.

It happened with my FIL. DH knew that SOMETHING happened to me when a person was about to pass, and I had already told him that I was not going to tell him if I sensed anything. The last time I saw FIL was the only time I did not hug him. I would have bawled, and given it away. I regret not hugging him, but not like I would regret giving my MIL and DH 4 days of a deathwatch. Afterward, as we were headed to the funeral home, DH looked at me, all teary, and said "You knew, didn't you? You've been weird since we saw him the last time."

Smelled it with my Grandmother, and squalled for 3 days solid, before there was really anything to squall about.

And I smell it still, with patients I see in the hospital. I hate this. It's as bad as getting that gut feeling to pull the code cart outside the lady's room. There is no more helpless feeling than knowing what is going to happen, and knowing just as well that you're powerless to stop it.

Anyone else gets this, or get an inkling as to the demise of a patient? I've heard about bad patients asking to have a BM, and nurses knowing that that was it, we've all heard about the "last turn", but does anyone else smell anything beforehand?

Or am I just a freak?

[bubblymom373]

Yeah I too have noticed a particular smell to people who are dying. To me me it is more of a sour musty smell. I notice too that people who die of cancer also have a different smell from others. Is that weird or what?

[nursel56]

AngelfireRN - no, you're not a freak- apparently I am! Haven't smelled anything that I really couldn't attribute to some organic cause. Well, dam-n! I never could see anything in those Magic Eye pictures either.

This is especially interesting because -- you are the one that people who treated you badly very often had catastrophic events happen to them shortly thereafter?

[BlessedMomRN]

There was a cat in a nursing home that always snuggled up with patients that ended up dying within a week. The staff starting notifiying family based upon the cat's behavior that their loved ones were near the end of life.

The theory was there was an odor he sensed that the people were admitting before they died. It could be you have an acute sense of smell that is picking up that odor. (No, I'm not calling you a cat!)

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

nursel56 said:

AngelfireRN - no, you're not a freak- apparently I am! Haven't smelled anything that I really couldn't attribute to some organic cause. Well, dam-n! I never could see anything in those Magic Eye pictures either.

This is especially interesting because -- you are the one that people who treated you badly very often had catastrophic events happen to them shortly thereafter?

Yeah, that was another of my many ramblings on here, lol. Kinda makes me wonder about myself, but as long as sparks aren't coming outta my fingers or I don't start in with any Harry Potter-esque goings-on, I'm just dealing with it. I figure I have the ability for a reason, so I might as well use it for the best that I can.

You'd think if the Almighty was going to impart all this on me, if that is indeed from whence it came, He might have at least given me a gift that was a little easier to work with, like, if I touch you, you're healed. Oh, well, one person already had that, and I am nowhere in the same neighborhood compared to Him. Heck, I ain't even in the suburbs. The backwoods shack on the edge of town, maybe, but that would be it, lol.

I guess trying to figure all this out once you figure you have it, and get over the initial shock, is part of the fun.

Glad to know it is not just me that smells this. I was about to set myself up for a CT. You know, some folks smell funny stuff before they start having seizures. My hypochondria was on overdrive.

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

BlessedMomRN said:

There was a cat in a nursing home that always snuggled up with patients that ended up dying within a week. The staff starting notifiying family based upon the cat's behavior that their loved ones were near the end of life.

The theory was there was an odor he sensed that the people were admitting before they died. It could be you have an acute sense of smell that is picking up that odor. (No, I'm not calling you a cat!)

No worries, I'd take it as a compliment, I am a cat person from the word go. I'm also a Leo with green eyes that change colors according to my mood, so the whole cat thing is actually close to home. DH loves it. He says I have mood-ring eyes.

Of course, I take being called a rhymes-with-witch as a compliment, too, so you could say I'm pretty hard to offend!

[msjellybean]

bubblymom373 said:

Yeah I too have noticed a particular smell to people who are dying. To me me it is more of a sour musty smell. I notice too that people who die of cancer also have a different smell from others. Is that weird or what?

Not weird, to me at least. I did a nurse internship this past summer on the in-pt onco unit at my hospital and always noticed an odor about patients rooms. After the internship was over, I became a float CNA. I've been able to walk into a pts room to assist with a turn or something and pick out the ones that have cancer, just by the smell in the room.

I also noticed a smell associated with dying patients. I've not thought about it enough to really attempt to describe it, but I know it when I smell it.

[leslie :-D]

yes, death has a smell.

very hard to describe...

but it is sweet, pungent yet i also understand that 'acetone' smell too.

not the same smell as cancer, which has a rotting smell.

i always wondered if this smell was r/t spirits gathering around the pt, to guide them home.

leslie

[Hygiene Queen]

annaedRN said:

Yes- I have smelled that same sickly-sweet smell many a time.

YES!

Exactly.

To me it smells-sickly-sweet.

I worked in LTC for years and came to know that odor well!

Between the smell and the first subtle changes in appearance, you can see death coming.

Those who don't recognize these things will think you've got ESP or that you sense something "otherworldly" when your prediction is correct, but those of us who have seen it many times over just know from sheer experience.

Interesting.

[MiahMSN, MSN, RN]

I don't think you're a freak, but this thread has really freaked me out!:uhoh21:

I know having to deal with death comes with nursing, but this would give me the heebeejeebees!

Oh please let me forget this thread the next time I go to a hosptital. I can just see myself walking down the hall sniffing and looking spooked!

[SAHMStudent]

Okay, that explains a lot. My dad died when I was about 4. I thought he was lying down for a nap, but he was actually having a heart attack. I fell asleep next to him. Years later, his mom died, and in the hospice. I thought that smell was hospice smell. I smelled it my first clinical day in LTC. And every time I've been around someone (who I thought was just my luck to be around in someones last hours) I've KNOWN, even if no one else did, that they were going to die. Happened with my DH's cousin, a man on another clinical rotation. I always thought it was more of an instinct. Like I just KNEW. So maybe I've been smelling that smell, and either recognizing it and realizing death was coming, or internalizing the smell and knowing DIC.

Hmmmm, off to ask the hubs, he's a fire fighter and has seen quite a bit of death. He always wondered how I could look at someone and know, just like he does. But (and I'm not being insensitive here) maybe the charred, burned smell covers it up for him? Anyone on a burn unit notice this?

[mc3, ASN, RN]

Hmmm. I wonder why certain people smell it, and others don't.........do you think we have super-sensitive noses, or are we just extra-special? And now that you mention it, I have also noticed the gaze in the eyes, too. It's a very far-away look, like they're looking into heaven. I noticed that on my kitties that have passed, too :redpinkhe.

Interesting!

[Hygiene Queen]

As a naughty smoker, I certainly do not have a wicked sense of smell, but I think somewhere I was able to pick up on this smell and it clicked that this smell occurs with death.

BUT I only know about the elderly who are sick and death is but a matter of time.

It makes sense to me there is an odor.

These folks have probably been in the process of "shutting down" for some time (even though they were happily boppin' and hoppin' about a mere 2 days ago, or whatever).

If this is the case, there has to be some chemical/physical ruckus going on in their bodies... craziness with electrolytes... dying tissues... bleeding... pooped organs...

I could imagine any of these things could produce a smell.

Why sickly-sweet?

I don't know, but you sorta get the same scent with dying plants.

Just my thoughts on a fascinating (to me) topic.