The patient or family may need additional comfort from a member of the clergy or from a physician. The length of life remaining to the patient no longer matters. The important thing is the quality of the patient’s last days or hours. The physician is aware that the application of medical skill can sometimes prolong the patient’s suffering and bring no real benefit. Although the physician may prescribe large doses of painkilling drugs if necessary, he or she is unlikely to start the patient on new treatment.
The actual moment of death is difficult to define, and for the family, difficult to accept. Even when the patient has stopped breathing, and a pulse cannot be felt, the heart gives feeble contractions for another minute or two. Even a physician may find it difficult to give an exact time of death, but must leave it to the expert to make the diagnosis.
If the family is present at the moment of death, it is comforting for everyone to stay quietly at the bedside with his or her own thoughts. Each member of the family needs a chance to touch or to kiss the dead relative, and such physical contact helps to bring home the reality of death.
Often no one is present when the patient dies, for he or she may have been left alone to sleep. Although death is expected, it is still a shock for the member of the family who first enters the room. It is sensible to tidy the bedclothes and comb the patient’s hair before telling the rest of the family. When they come in to see the body, it has an appearance of calm and peacefulness.
