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?

[TRUENURSE84, ASN, RN]

this might not be related ,but i can tell if someone is dead just by looking in their photos ... they always have this strange & sad look in their eyes

[sunflrz321]

I've never smelled death persay myself, but I would guess that experiencing the smell with the event would have to happen enough times to make the connection in your mind. I have been fortunate that I haven't had enough experiences to make such a connection.

I can identify the smell of someone in liver failure, renal failure, with pseudamonas, c-diff, and more. However I am fortunate to work in pediatrics, so we tend to children in acute organ failure, rather than chronic organ failure (which I associate with certain smells).

I would not be surprised if it was related to the liver failure (which makes for a very pungent smell) and/or renal failure (which alters the chemical composition of both urine and sweat, since we can sweat off what we don't excrete through urine or stool).

As far as the stories about animals identifying such a smell, I would guess that dying animals probably make similar smells when they are in organ failure. Given that cats and dogs have much stronger senses of smell than we do, it is not surprising that they can smell death/organ failure/ etc earlier.

[mstzydeco]

I am a hospice nurse and yes it is a smell on there breath. I call it the juicy fruit smell.

[David13, MSN, RN]

This is such an interesting topic. I, too, am able to detect a very specific odor prior to death. I have discussed this peculiar smell with other nurses and, similar to the experiences of those who have responded in this thread, some know exactly what I am referring to and others haven't a clue.

[KKandria]

This is so weird...

I'm not a nurse, but I remember smelling something "different" when my mother was dying. The first night they brought her into the ICU I smelled it. It wasn't any body fluids because she was still coherent and asked for washcloths often to clean herself, and got bathed.

For some reason, to me, it had a yeasty sweet smell. Like imagine raw bread being left to ferment for a week, a very high concentration of that. It was sweet and musky, and kind of reminded me of beer...that's what I mean by yeasty.

I still remember it to this day. I never smelled it ever again, although she was the only person I've been around that died slowly. She had heart and kidney failure, and most of her organs shut down slowly over time.

I wonder if it's what you guys smell too.

[20772lpn]

I can also smell pending death, it is a rotting smell to me. I can smell it faintly on the breath at first and then it gets stronger as days go by. I've found that people look at me like I've lost my mind when I mention it...glad to see I'm not alone here.

I work in assisted living where we have several hospice residents at any given time. When I notice the smell, I just encourage family members to spend more time, hold hands, and enjoy each other. Most family members will follow your lead and be thankful that you helped them be there for their loved one.

For those of you with a sensitive nose like mine, use your gift to do good, don't waste it.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

"Death Breath"

Sort of a musty, sweet smell- it's not "gag"-worthy, but not great- very distinctive, and not smelled with anything else. Usually means 24 hours or less to live- but as with anything, it's not set in stone.

[Redoubt]

I am not a nurse but I have had several family members who have passed in the last few years and another who is currently elderly and recovering from blood clots.

The smell... as it were, seems to me to be a combination of a strange form of mildly acrid perspiration that somehow gains a kind of sweetness. It is terribly difficult to compare to any other smell. But the odor is constant, is the same from person to person and it hangs in your nostrils even after you have left a room where you encounter it. It follows you and you are almost constantly reminded of the encounter.

It is entirely otherworldly because there is something inside that seems to understand what that smell means... even though it may be your first time encountering it. It can be unnerving.

Thanks for a place to vent out some. These last few weeks have been rough.

[debowen]

My wife's mother recently died at home. 10 days before, my wife and I both noticed the "smell of death" in her bedroom and the bathroom. I am in the funeral business and smell the same smell in the morgue and when I pick up deceased from nursing homes I often smell it there as well.

My mother-in-law lived about 10 more days, enjoying one her best Mothers Days with her daughter, grand daughter and great grand son on the Sunday and passed away in her sleep early Friday morning next. RIP

A work mate of mine had his wife die from cancer and he confirmed that about a week before she died he could smell the same odour as I referred to in the morgue and took a couple of days off to be with her as he knew what was coming.

When you read of Kings dying in the company of their family and dignitaries and naming their successor etc, I guess they were more sensitive to the raw body odours rather than the deodorants and perfumes we use today.

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

Reading this thread wasn't such a good idea, just scared myself to death ugh the smells!

[Catch22Personified]

I did notice that in my hospice patients that do have existing wounds, there was a particular odor about them that lasted a week until their time of expiration.

So I do agree that there is actually a smell of death.

[SurrenderDorothy]

Yes! I, too, thought I was crazy, but I've smelled it on people in the days leading up to their death.