Hospice doctor 'awestruck' as dying patients all see same thing in final moments

A doctor who has seen thousands of people die has revealed one common theme he has noticed among them. Dr Chris Kerr, a neurologist and the chief medical officer and chief executive officer of Hospice Buffalo in New York , USA, has spoken about his experiences of caring for dying patients. Dr Kerr, whose TED Talk titled ‘I see dead people: dreams and visions of the dying’ has been viewed by more than five million people, has discussed how he has seen people behave in the final moments of their lives. The researcher has been studying what are known as ELDVs (End of Life Dreams and Visions) for decades. During that time, he has recorded and analysed the experiences of patients nearing the end of their lives. Speaking to The Times about his work, he said there was one overarching theme among those he had witnessed dying and how the ELDVs had affected them during their final moments. He said the most common theme was that people would see visions of their family members, often deceased relatives, in dreams before they passed away. Dr Kerr told the publication: “I am awestruck by the way that patients are united with the most important people in their lives emotionally and developmentally. Often the encounters are with people they lost in childhood.” When it comes to the mechanism behind these visions, Dr Kerr said they had the added benefit of meaning people did not die alone, as they had someone with them in their final moments as they passed away — similar to being walked to a train station by a friend or family member. He said: “This means that we don’t leave this life alone but with a parent, sibling, deceased child or beloved pet.” Dr Kerr is not the only physician to have explored what the brain is doing in its final moments, with researchers including Professor Jimo Borjigin from the University of Michigan also intrigued by what happens when we die. Research by the university , published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggested that when someone dies, their brain activity surges before the moment of death rather than simply shutting down like an electrical device being unplugged. Professor Borjigin suggested there could be something known as a “cover consciousness” that does not become fully known to someone until they are close to death, and that the brain produces chemicals such as dopamine in one final burst of activity. Using the example of cardiac arrest, she said: “The brain has an extremely sensitive mechanism to sense oxygen levels in your body. Even tiny drops of oxygen levels — the brain knows about that and constantly regulates the supply of oxygen. “To think that when you are undergoing cardiac arrest — where the heart is stopping or not pumping blood — and the brain does nothing? It’s beyond me. The brain should be going crazy — which is exactly what happens.” Speaking to the Guardian about the research, she said: “I believe what we found is only the tip of a vast iceberg. What’s still beneath the surface is a full account of how dying actually takes place. Because there’s something happening in there, in the brain, that makes no sense.”