Knowing When You Are Going To Die?

[Starman]

Thank you for sharing your insights Lynn. Death is still a taboo subject to many here in the U.S., people think it is a morbid subject and a lot of people do not even discuss it with their loved ones, which I think causes even more grief to the loved ones when that person dies. The first job I got when I got out of the army was that of an ambulance paramedic and my first apartment where I lived was in a mortuary; the front door to my apartment was right across the hall from the embalming room.

It always amazed me people who work with dead bodies, like an embalmer, or a beautician who does the cosmetic effects on a body that night be viewed in a casket. The worst are those who do autopsies; that is something I definitely could not do on a daily basis. As a military veteran I can relate to service members losing their life in a non-combat situation, and yes a person on their final breath does often struggle with that breath, or in a trauma situation they may drown in their own blood which prevents them from taking another breath. Death in a combat situation looks a lot different than death in a hospital.

I have seen people die struggling with their death, in fear, etc., and I have seen others who have had a very smooth transition. Some die and the look of fear is still on their face after they have died and others die with light in their eyes and a look of peace on their face. Personally, I strive to have a smooth transition myself.

Once while working in a hospital in San Antonio, Texas a big drug kingpin was bought into the hospital all shot up. He had been in a gun fight with police. By all accounts he was a cruel real tough guy who had killed lots of people himself. He was talking bad when they wheeled him into the ER. But when the doctors said that his wounds were too great and that there was nothing they could do. That guy curled into a fetal position and cried like a baby because he knew he was going to die.

I have always wondered why we humans view death as a sad affair, and I do understand that it has more to do with the loss of a loved one than it does death itself. Those entities on the other side, if they have feelings, might feel like why do humans cry when one of them leaves their realm and enters our realm? In my opinion death is not the issue as much as how a person dies.

There have been times when, while working in the medical field, we just let a person die instead of performing any life saving interventions. In the hospital it is called a “No Core,” which means that a person is terminally ill and if their heart stops don’t do CPR or any other type of intervention. This is also done at many hospices; because most people go to a hospice to die.

Another such situation when medical staff do not run in to help save a person’s life is in a triage situation. When you have death on a large scale; a plane crash, bombing or other terrorist attack, etc., you only help those who will most benefit from what time and medical supplies you may have on hand.

I was stationed at White Sands Missile Range in Southern New Mexico and one evening we got a call of a car crash out on the highway adjacent to the base. When we got out there we saw that a rather large tow truck had crashed into a school bus filled with kids returning from a field trip. Kids bodies were laying all over the road and by the road; we were the only ambulance on the scene an the radio in our ambulance stopped working.

There was one New Mexico State Police car there an he was having radio problems also; something to do with the transmissions in the area around the base. This was back in the 1960’s before computers and cell phones, etc. Basically me and my ambulance partner had to triage the scene; run around look at the kids, treat who we could treat and let who was near death die. This is what doctors and other medical people do in a triage situation.