*A doctor explains that in the moments before death, the body undergoes a series of complex changes.
As vital organs begin to shut down, the heart slows, breathing becomes shallow, and the brain starts to lose function, leading to a gradual fading of consciousness.
Dr. Kathryn Mannix, who spent 30 years in palliative care, shared insights into our final moments on BBC Women’s Hour, Metro reports. Her new short animation, “Dying for Beginners,” aims to address the fear many people have about the end of life.
“It’s not a frightening mental state to be in, it’s a state of not knowing anything,” she said.
Dr. Mannix explained that the first noticeable thing in the process is “the body starts to run out of energy, almost like when you’ve got an old mobile phone and the battery won’t stay charged,” she said.
“And the charger is sleep. More than food, more than drink. And in fact a lot of dying people don’t feel very hungry and that’s fine,” Dr. Mannix continued.
“They’re not dying because they’re not eating. They’re not eating because their body is dying. So as time goes by people gradually need more sleep to give them intervals of enough energy to think and do what they can,” she said. “And gradually people become not just asleep, but unconscious. Now they don’t recognize the difference.”
She also pointed out that the body enters a state of deep unconsciousness, and contrary to cinematic portrayals, our entire life does not flash before our eyes.
“The brain runs reflex breathing patterns that move backwards and forwards between quite deep breathing that gradually becomes more shallow,” she said about the so-called “death rattle.”
“And then back to the beginning again, and backwards and forwards between periods of quite slow breathing, more rapid breathing, back to slow breathing again. Now if you haven’t seen that before, you might think that the person who is breathing, perhaps fast but shallow, is struggling to breathe or is panting or is uncomfortable,” Dr. Mannix explained.
During this period of “deep unconsciousness,” she said the person is quite safe.
“And then at the very end of somebody’s life there will usually be one of those slow breathing phases. There will be a breath out that just doesn’t have another breath in after it, which is not at all what Hollywood has lead us all to expect.”
Dr. Mannix said she’s on a mission to “take away the fear” of dying.
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