Oscar Knows

Kitty knows when your number's up
Article from:
July 27, 2007 12:00am

OSCAR the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours.

His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr David Dosa.

He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Many family members take some solace from it," said Dr Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

"They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one."

The two-year-old feline grew up in a dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre.

It treats people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses.

He would sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would end up dying in a few hours.

Dr Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof.

"This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said.

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr Joan Teno of Brown

University, who treats patients at the nursing home.

She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call.

While observing one patient, Dr Teno said she noticed the woman was not eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.

Oscar would not stay inside the room though, so Dr Teno thought his streak was broken.
Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was about 10 hours too early.

Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Dr Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

AP