Arrangement of sensory loss at the time of death

United States – The body goes through a series of events and changes as it transitions from life to death, and one of these processes is the deterioration of body functions and senses.

According to Dr. James Hallenbeck, a specialist in palliative care (specialized medical care focused on relieving pain and other symptoms in seriously ill people) at Stanford University, the dying tend to lose their senses in a certain order when the body begins to stop functioning.

Here is everything that happens to the senses in order when a death experience approaches:

hunger and thirst

Hallenbeck says that the majority of dying people initially suffer from a decreased appetite and thirst, because the dying body does not need the same vitamins and nutrition that a healthy body needs, nor does it need food and drink to obtain energy, because it is already in the process of stopping.

In addition, your digestive system will also have a more difficult time trying to process food and drink.

the speech

When bodily functions begin to stop working, speech becomes sluggish and holding a conversation becomes difficult. Eventually, the person will likely lose the ability to speak completely because he or she spends more time asleep or in an unconscious state.

The dying person’s breathing also becomes irregular, including from rapid to slow.

Vision

The next sense to deteriorate is vision, as a person’s eyesight begins to weaken, and he may only be able to see what is close.

Those around him may also notice that the dying person frequently closes his eyes or opens them half-way due to decreased muscle tone.

The dying person often finds it difficult to keep track of what is happening properly and can sometimes have hallucinations. For example, they may see pets or people who died before them.

Their vision may also be blurred.

Touch

In the short period before death, when a dying person oscillates between consciousness and unconsciousness, they will likely still be able to feel touched and hear their loved ones.

But once the comatose state sets in, the penultimate sense a dying person loses is touch, meaning final touches with family and friends may be felt.

The good news is that the person will not be able to feel pain or any kind of discomfort during this.

Hearing

In the final moments before death, the majority of patients enter a period of unresponsiveness, where they are no longer able to respond to or experience their external environment.

At this stage, the brain processes sensory information differently than it always did.

However, thanks to a groundbreaking study published in the journal Scientific Reports in June 2020, it has been proven that hearing is the last sense to ever disappear, and for some people, this sense stays with them until their final moments.

Using electroencephalography (EEG) indicators, neuroscientists at the University of British Columbia measured electrical activity in the brains of hospital patients following they lost consciousness and then became unresponsive.

At the same time, they also measured young and healthy participants for comparison. What they found was that the dying brain responded similarly to the healthy control group, proving that even in the near-death unconscious state, hearing still exists.

Source: Metro