Spooky Stuff

cannoli · Aug 30, 2004

Hey Cannoli....
All the patients except one (Mr. Meanie) lost weight, presumably losing the weight due to a soul leaving a body. I guess if a person is nasty (meaning has no soul) then I guess he will not lose any weight.

Maureen

Interesting, thanks!

loriann, BSN, RN · Aug 31, 2004

I think the weight loss thing you're talking about is 21 grams. My understanding is that when a person dies, he/she loses 21 grams of mass, which many believe is the weight of your soul. There was actually a movie about it recently...didn't see it though.

angelymick · Aug 31, 2004

I think the weight loss thing you're talking about is 21 grams. My understanding is that when a person dies, he/she loses 21 grams of mass, which many believe is the weight of your soul. There was actually a movie about it recently...didn't see it though.

Wow, need to pay more attention to that one. What a cool theory. Anyone else with more input on that?

:uhoh21:

judy ann · Aug 31, 2004

I worked at a busy LTC as night supervisor. When I would enter the building on some nights, I heard a "swishing" noise. On those nights, I had a death. I decided this was angel wings fluttering. One night the sound was especially pronounced. We lost three residents.

Many of my elderly residents would tell me to "look at all the angels in the courtyard". They would stare out the window for some time, totally transfixed. Often, they didn't make it through the night.

One little lady, aged 95, told me that her mother and father were coming for her the next day. Right, she died the next day.

I learned to listen to these folks, and to keep an especially close eye on them.

Belgndogs · Aug 31, 2004

Last summer I worked nights as a CNA on a surg/oncology floor. While I had several less tangible 'encounters' the most dramatic was when the call light went on for a pt who had already expired. It was around 3 am, everyone was at the nurse's station and the pt was in a private room. We looked up at the sound of the bell going off and had the collective realization that no one could possibly be pushing the call button.

Asterias Aureus · Sep 2, 2004

I think the weight loss thing you're talking about is 21 grams. My understanding is that when a person dies, he/she loses 21 grams of mass, which many believe is the weight of your soul. There was actually a movie about it recently...didn't see it though.

Was the movie called 21 grams? Is that what that Naomi Watts movie was about? I'll have to check that out one day soon.

Maureen

not now, RN · Sep 2, 2004

Was the movie called 21 grams? Is that what that Naomi Watts movie was about? I'll have to check that out one day soon.
Maureen

That movie is not in chronoligical order so if you're looking for a no brainer, don't see it (it constantly jumps around from three different viewpoints). I took my friend and for the first hour of the movie she kept leaning over and saying "I don't know what's going on!"

I have no ghost stories, sorry for the hijack.

Shed13911 · Sep 2, 2004

What I want to know is who is weighing these dead people and why? I have been a nurse for 27 years and have never heard of weighing someone after they passed. Can you explain please??

pinkisnoopi · Sep 2, 2004

Here's a little something that freaked me out: I'm a nurse in a Surgical ICU & was taking care of an organ donor patient, preparing to take him to the OR in the am (to recover his organs). I left the room & when I returned, I noticed his left arm was lying up next to his head. I naturally assumed that the resident positioned his arm that way to do a procedure or something, but when I asked him about it, he said he didn't do such a thing! When I asked the organ consortium person who was working with us that night about it, he said it was "reflexive" and that "it happens"!! I was spooked & amazed.. :eek:

jannecdote · Sep 3, 2004

Have you ever heard that saying that death comes in threes? If one patient dies, it seems like two more expire soon afterwards. One night at work we had a patient expire at shift change. It was one of the most chaotic nights I've ever experienced as a nurse. Most of the patients were awake all night, three were found wandering in the hallways, one patient said, and I quote "death is here"--and sure enough, two more patients expired before our shift was over. There was such a restless feeling in the building that night, like all the older patients were in a state of expectation--waiting on the death angel to come get them. One patient remarked, after his roommate had expired, that death wasn't coming for him that night--they'd already gotten his roommate. He was one of the only patients who actually got a good night's sleep.

Asterias Aureus · Sep 3, 2004

what i want to know is who is weighing these dead people and why? i have been a nurse for 27 years and have never heard of weighing someone after they passed. can you explain please??

although not exactly scary, another nurse i work with had the idea (not sure if she thought about it on her own or heard about it from another medical professional) that immediately after a patient dies he or she loses like two pounds (not sure of the exact number...something like 2.something). she thinks that it is the person's soul leaving the body. she was talking about this one day and one doctor overheard her. he thought the weight loss was just due to loss of air from the lungs. my nurse coworker did some empirical research for a paper she had to write for school, and her findings were pretty consistent! she even found that a patient who was totally nasty during his hospital stay (and from visitor input generally mean) didn't lose any weight after he died. i don't know what it really is, but it really makes you think! anyone else have experience or thoughts about that?

hello shed...

as i said before, this was an individual nurse's project. she wanted to see, based on something she had heard before, if a person's soul has weight. presumably, if a person has a soul, it would leave the body upon death. the best way to see if a soul has weight is to weigh a person right before and immediately after death. this was my co-worker's research project, based on curiosity. weighing patients after they die is not a routine thing in my hospital.

hope that explains it.

maureen

mariedoreen · Sep 3, 2004

Wow, need to pay more attention to that one. What a cool theory. Anyone else with more input on that?
:uhoh21:

I actually heard about this 15 years ago from my boss, a pathologist, during an autopsy. An EMT that was observing said he had read about studies where patients were laying on bed scales that took their weight before and immediately after death and that there was a consistent amount of lost weight among the patients. My boss confirmed the existance of this theory, indicating that he had read similar research and believed it to be true himself and that he also believed that the lost weight represented the departure of the patient's soul. A wonderful, comforting idea if you ask me.