Dead body vs. Live patient

[LPNweezy]

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? :)

[leslie :-D]

But, I think there is more to it. On a couple of occasions, I have been in a room of a person, not immediately expected to die. I have just taken vitals, and talked with the person, had turned and then ..heard, or sensed, or I'm not sure what, turned around, and knew that person was seconds away from death. I just knew it somehow. It was distrubing to me. There are times I could even just walk up to a room, not even open the door, and know they were about to die-never having even met the person. I started to get a complex. But, I think I may have been feeling the added presence of an angel.

One time another nurse asked me to come look at one of his pts. I walked in and said hello, and listened to her lungs and looked at the vitals he did. Suddenly I felt it, I knew the pt was going to die real soon. I called the nurse out in the hallway and told him, what I felt. He got somber, and said, I knew you could feel these things, and we went back in the room. Her dtr was at her side. I told the person, listen what I am saying, it is very important, you need to tell your dtr you love her, and we are going to leave the room, and I want you to say whatever it is you need to say. I said nothing about dying, but I could already feel the extra presnce in the room. We stood outside, and soon the call bell came on, the person had died peacefully, and the dtr was grateful they had one last honest talk. She asked me, how did you know? I told her I felt an angel in the room.

these folks you reference above... they were both alert and verbal?

your experiences were surprising to read about.

there is almost always a process involved when dying.

it 'seems' that both of these people, completely eluded this progression of events, and just died suddenly.

wow.

leslie

[tiroka03, LPN]

the two people I wrote about where both alert and verbal, and vitals were strong. They were getting near to the end, but I didn't see it coming, and I have a fair amount of experience. It was a very strong feeling, it basically overpowered me. The first one we expected to die in about a week, and the second one they believed had a couple day left. They both spoke to me, both said they felt good. When I felt that presence, I asked them if they felt anything different in the last few momenths, and they said no.

I think it gave the person who died time to rethink their life, and to pray or talk to loved ones real quick. Don't know why, for sure.

[teeniebert, LPN]

the one time I was in the room when a person died, I didn't feel a change...but it seemed to me that he'd been gone for a couple of days and his body didn't know it yet. I'm still not sure whether telling his wife that his heart had stopped was a horrible duty or a blessed privilege.

[LPNweezy]

Have never quite felt that the spirit was still hanging around.

I am more surprised at the many people who do not realize that the spirit has been long gone on a vent patient, very easy for ME to tell.

You sound kind and sensitive. I am sorry for the rude comments you received. Some people are mean, and mean people suck!

aww well thank for for the compassion, i may be soft and gentle on the outside, but on the inside i'm a hockey player!

i try not to let people get to me

[RescueNinja]

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

Ditto. I don't have a full-on conversation with them or anything, but I do tell them what I'm going to be doing (ie "I'm just going to wash your face now" or "we're going to roll you over now so we can put this sheet underneath you" stuff like that). Some people have asked my why the heck I do that, but I've worked with a lot of nurses that do it too - to me it's a respect thing.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

The postmortem care I did the patient felt very heavy for the patient's size.

I watched a code in nursing school, and that just really impressed upon me the fact that when you're doing CPR, the patient is DEAD. Maybe they'll stop being dead, but this patient looked like a corpse. They did regain a heart rate from the code, but I do not know what the outcome was long term.