How to tell if someone is dying

TELLIT01 · 22 October 2019 at 1:58PM

onwards&upwards wrote: »

I think that’s actually quite common, as if the dying person ‘hangs on’ as long as their loved one is around for their sake but slips away quite soon after they leave.

I suspect you could be right, even with those who seem to have ceased having knowledge of what is happening around them. My brother collapsed and was deemed too ill to be transferred to a specialist hospital for treatment and was put in the local ICU ward. We went in to see him and he had stabilised, and was actually 'well' enough to apologise for causing all the fuss. We were advised that all the signs were that he would be OK until next morning and that we should go home and get some sleep. We'd only been home a couple of hours when the phone went to say that he had died a few minutes earlier.

Alleycat · 24 October 2019 at 1:05PM

Hi, as another poster says there is fast track continuing healthcare process for someone who needs end of life care. However as has also been said, it is standard for just 4 visits per day and so they would expect you to look at a hospice or nursing home.

This is where we are at with my mother-in-law right now. She was discharged from the hospital last week to a nursing home that we found that luckily had bed spaces as she is not fit enough to go home and we live too far away to provide proper care for her. The fast track process only took a couple of days and she has been awarded CHC funding for 3 months.

Stoodles · 25 October 2019 at 9:31AM

We are on the list for a CHC assessment, I think under rhe fast Track process, and have found a live in carer to start on Monday.

Even if they assessed mother as needing to go into a home or hospice, she would dig her heels in and refuse to go. She is a very strong willed woman, and she is adamant that she stays at home. I am unable to do any the physical care, so we've had a complex patchwork of four visits a day from NHS and private carers, with family coming from all parts of the country to do everything in between.

She still can't turn in bed , or get in and out of bed without help, so needs help throughout the day. Until now she has been fiercely independent, despite repeated falls, so it very odd to hear her wanting people nearby all the time. At the same time she is quite reserved, so I think she dreads having someone living in. Complicated stuff.

How to tell if someone is dying

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