Monday, November 01, 2004

Portal Open Between the Living and the Dead?

I am starting to suspect that a portal really did open up between the living and the dead on Halloween. Two of our palliative care patients who were thought to be in their last 24 hours suddenly bounced back.

One had developed a death rattle and her oxygenation level had dropped to 50%. [The brain and body normally needs a saturation level of 93% or higher unless someone has long-term respiratory disease in which case they may have adapted to levels as low as 80%, though even then they use oxygen to keep their saturations in the high 80's to low 90's.] The next morning, this dying patient woke up, got on the commode to go to the bathroom and said, "I'm hungry. What time is breakfast?" It was like witnessing a miracle.

A second patient had had a stroke and the doctors were certain her brain would herniate and she'd die within a day or two. Unlike the doctor's expectations, she woke up more and more and now, despite some difficulty moving one half of her body, she looks like she's suddenly got a few more years left in her.

I have *never* seen anyone come so close to death and bounce back as these two have. And what are the odds of this occuring on Halloween just after a lunar eclipse? Am I the only one who sees something other-worldly in this?

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