Sensing Impending Death

[gerhard1]

In the book Where Death Delights, by Marshall Houts, Milton Helpern, the one-time Chief Medical Examiner of New York City tells of people who sensed that their own deaths were quite near and called family in to say farewell, or in one case, made a long walking journey to a particular church so they could die there.

This is not, Helpern stated, uncommon. In fact, medicine has given it a name: the thanatognomonic sign. Is anyone here familiar with it?

 

[EnolaGaia]

As far as I can tell, this use of the term "thanatognomonic sign" to connote a sign of impending death is peculiar to Helpern. The term can be found in 19th century medical dictionaries and texts, but in those contexts it seems to be used for features or characteristics of a corpse that are specifically related to the deceased's death (e.g., the distended lungs of a drowned person; certain patterns of hemorrhaging in the eyes).

Having said that ... I've known a few late family members and friends who predicted their own deaths, but with no more precision than a matter of days. These were all terminal patients, and these predictions (even if the sole one they'd ever expressed) weren't unexpected enough to be considered uncanny.

On the other hand ... My experience has been that experienced nurses - especially those in assisted living, skilled nursing, and hospice facilities, are quite accurate in sensing the approaching end within a range of circa 24 - 48 hours.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I have mentioned before, I think, the relative who died suddenly, the day after a very happy birthday.

She was in her eighties and had diabetes, which was well-managed. She did have what she described as a "funny turn" a day or two before her birthday. She did not call a family conference but my brother told me that, during their last meeting, she had made an unusually affectionate declaration of her love for him and gratitude for his kindness to her. Entirely untypical. After the unhappy event, he recalled her words and felt certain she knew they would not see each other again.

 

[Carse]

This is not, Helpern stated, uncommon. In fact, medicine has given it a name: the thanatognomonic sign. Is anyone here familiar with it?

I’ve seen it referred to as Angor Animi - the book Do No Harm by neurosurgeon Henry Marsh describes a striking example.

 

[gerhard1]

Helpern gave a few examples of people who sensed their own impending deaths. One was an advanced alcoholic who one day checked out of the flophouse where he had lived for a few years, and said that he 'had to go uptown' Along the way he encountered a few people that he knew (one was, if memory serves, a news vendor) who asked where he was going and offered to call the police to have them give him a ride to wherever it was that he was going and his response to each of them was no; that he had to be uptown by morning, and finally a couple from out of town saw him walk partway up the steps of a Catholic cathedral in uptown Manhattan,, He had a smile on his face and the the couple went over to him and saw that he was dead. It seems that he was where he wanted to be.

The other examples given in the book are a lot less dramatic; one was a man calling his wife over to him and very tenderly ,telling her that he loved her, thanking her for being a good wife to him and then a few minutes later passing on., an elderly woman calling her sister into her bedroom just a moment before she died to say that she loved her. and finally (and somewhat anticlimactically, it would seem) a dying man waking up a moment before his death to comment on a particularly beautiful sunset.

I think the phenomenon is real.