Dead body vs. Live patient

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Specializes in LTC.

For those nurses who are seasoned in doing postmortem care, do you ever feel a spirit leave? Is there a spiritual difference between a living body and dead one? When i did postmortem care, for a short time after the death of a patient, it was like they weren't dead at all, and for some reason i felt like there presence could still hear me. after a bit, it changed, and it was just a body, and i was alone. anyone else know what i mean or am i psycho? :lol2::)

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Specializes in FNP.

No, no and quite possibly.

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

I've never felt that but you're not psycho. No one can tell you what you felt.

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Specializes in LTC.

No. THere's an instant change for me.

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weird

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Right now I'm a NS with no postmortem care experience, but when I used to volunteer, I came across a patient who came into the ED via ambulance. As I helped lift this patient from one bed to another, it felt like they had no presence. I really do not know how to explain it. So yes, I do believe there is a difference in a body with presence over one that does not have presence.

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Specializes in ED, OR, SAF, Corrections.

No, you're not psycho. I've never personally had that experience, but that doesn't mean you didn't. Operating on the assumption that such a thing is possible, perhaps you are just more sensitive or attuned to such an occurrence, whereas others are not.

Then again, it may just be that as the body settled in death, it had changed in ways so subtle that you didn't pay attention (you were occupied with prepping the body) until it became noticeable. Either way, you felt what you felt.

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Specializes in LTC.

It was a weird experience, i felt as if the life was still around- but not in the body. then it left.

long story short- death is a mysterious thing ;):lol2:

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Specializes in ER.

I talk to the patient when doing post mortem care...if that makes me weird so be it!

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Specializes in LTC.
I talk to the patient when doing post mortem care...if that makes me weird so be it!

i do the same! :D

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

I've never exactly felt life leave when a pt dies.

However, when I have a pt who is dying and they have no family, I make frequent checks as I hate for my pt to die alone. It's only happened a few times, but I know as soon as I clear the door frame if there is no longer a living person in the room. It is weird.

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Specializes in Hem/Onc, LTC, AL, Homecare, Mgmt, Psych.
It was a weird experience, i felt as if the life was still around- but not in the body. then it left.

long story short- death is a mysterious thing ;):lol2:

I know exactly what you mean. The room & the atmosphere changes at that last breath, when the person just becomes a body. It's a strange feeling! Glad to read I am not the only one that notices this.

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