How dying patients keep themselves alive using sheer WILLPOWER
- Many people have described relatives ‘waiting’ to die when they wanted to
- Dr Toby Campbell, chief of palliative care at University of Wisconsin, Madison, insists the phenomenon is real and it happens ‘all the time’
Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com
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Crowded into a room in the University of Wisconsin’s palliative care ward, a family held vigil over their elderly relative as doctors said she had just hours to live.
Despite having a close family of children, grandchildren and in-laws, she had always wanted to die alone.
But her tearful loved-ones couldn’t bear the thought.
Days went by, with the family on rotation. There was always at least one person at her side, though she had lost all ability to communicate.
Some patients seem to survive longer than expected before drifting off when they want
‘After a while they were wondering what was going on,’ Dr Toby Campbell, chief of palliative care at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, told to Daily Mail Online.
‘One day they left the room for five minutes to get Tylenol and something from the cafeteria.
‘She died in those five minutes.’
It sounds absurd, bizarre, impossible.
But according to Dr Campbell, this is hardly the first time he has seen a patient apparently ‘hang on’ to their life until the time was ‘right’, so to speak.
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‘I absolutely think there’s something in it,’ he exclaimed.
‘Ask any one of my colleagues in New York or anywhere else. They will tell you the same.
‘It happens a few times a week. I don’t even remember all the cases that well because it’s a pretty common phenomenon.
‘It happens all the time.’
Intriguingly, there is little-to-no literature on why this happens.
Scientists have been exploring for decades how positive thinking and desire to live seem to help patients survive beyond doctors’ expectations.
However, these studies all focus on patients who still have months or years left.
Dr Campbell’s research is on patient-doctor communication, as such he has not explored the science behind this phenomenon beyond his observations.
Of course, he says, we all try to find meaning in those final hours, analyzing every last moment, conversation, breath and expression.
In many cases it can be projection.
From experience, however, Dr Campbell says there is no doubt some patients seem to have a say in when they go.
‘I don’t know whether it’s something hormonal or existential. I think some patients have no control.
‘But I do think some patients are waiting for their son or daughter to arrive, for example – maybe they heard something even though they seem like they seem like they can’t.’
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