【转载/阅读】Cat's "Sixth sense" Predicting death? 猫凭「第六感」预测死亡？

青蛙小王子

Cat's "Sixth Sense" Predicting Death?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/25/health/webmd/main3097899.shtml

July 25, 2007  By none

Nursing Home Cat Named Oscar Seems to Know When Death Is Near


Oscar The 'Amazing Cat'
Only On The Web: Dr. David Dosa talks with Richard Schlesinger about Oscar the Cat, who seems to have the ability to know when patients at a Rhode Island nursing home are about to pass away.


Cat Is Harbinger Of Death
Oscar the Cat seems to know when patients in the nursing home where he lives are about to die. He visits their bedside in their final hours, providing comfort. Richard Schlesinger reports.


Oscar, a hospice cat at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I., walks past an activity room at the facility on July 23, 2007.  AP

Predicting the death of a patient, even an elderly, demented one, is an inexact science, even for a doctor with decades of medical experience. But a cat in a Providence, Rhode Island, nursing home, an animal shelter refugee named Oscar, seems to have a sixth sense about when residents in the home's advanced dementia unit are about to pass away. And his actions can sometimes help alert the staff to notify family members in time for them to get to the nursing home to tell their loved ones goodbye.

预测病人的死亡，即使是老人痴呆症患者，是门不够严谨精确的科学，即使有几十年医疗经验的医生亦然。但美国罗得岛普洛维登斯一家养老院有只叫奥斯卡的猫，原是动物收容所的流浪猫，牠似乎有「第六感」，可预知院中重症痴呆病患何时即将离世。它的举动有时可帮助提醒工作人员，及时通知家属赶到养老院和亲人告别。

Dr. David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring, sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong in their predictions over which patients were close to death.

多萨博士，一个老年医学专家兼布朗大学助理教授说，5年来的纪录显示，奥斯卡很少犯错，有时反倒以行动证明，这家新英格兰养老院医务人员在预测哪些患者濒临死亡上有误。

The cat, now five and generally unsociable, was adopted as a kitten at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, which specializes in caring for people with severe dementia. When Oscar was about six months old the staff noticed that he would curl up to sleep with patients who were about to die. If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in. So far he has accurately predicted about 50 deaths.

这只猫现年5岁，通常独来独往，不善交际。是院方到普洛维登斯护理康复中心「斯蒂尔之家」领养的，这家养老院专责照顾重症痴呆病患。奥斯卡约6个月大时，工作人员注意到，牠会蜷伏在濒死病患身旁睡觉。如果把牠关在垂死病人门外，奥斯卡会不断抓门想要进去。牠迄今已准确预测约 50人死亡。

Dosa recounts one instance when staffs were convinced of the imminent death of one patient but Oscar refused to sit with that person, choosing instead to be on the bed of another patient in another room. Oscar proved to be right. The person he sat with died first, taking staff on the ward by surprise. Dosa noted that the nursing home keeps five other cats, but none of the others have ever displayed a similar ability.

多萨举个实例，有一次工作人员相信有位病患即将死亡，但奥斯卡拒绝坐在他身旁，反而跳到另一间病房的另一位病人床上。结果证明奥斯卡是对的，躺在他身旁那个病患先死，连病房医护人员都感到意外。多萨说，养老院另外养了5只猫，但牠们均未展现类似的能力。

Dosa said there is no scientific evidence to explain Oscar's abilities, but he thinks the cat might be responding to a pheromone or smell that humans simply don't recognize. He said his main interest was not to delve further into Oscar's abilities but to use Oscar as a vehicle to tell about terminal illness, which is his main area of work.

多萨说，没有任何科学证据足以说明奥斯卡的超能力，但他认为猫可能会对人类根本无法察觉的费洛蒙或气味作出反应。他的本意不在深入探讨奥斯卡的超能力，而是试图利用奥斯卡作为了解绝症的媒介，这也是他主要的工作领域。

When doctors and staff realized that Oscar could sense when someone was going to die, the feline was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death. But Dr. Dosa, who broke the news of Oscar's abilities in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, said he never intended to make Oscar sound creepy or his arrival at a bedside to be viewed negatively.

当医生和工作人员发现，奥斯卡能预知有人将死亡时，这只猫被丑化成毛茸茸的死神，或四条腿的死亡天使。但多萨博士2007年在《新英格兰医学期刊》发表论文，披露奥斯卡有超能力的新闻时强调，他无意使奥斯卡变成令人毛骨悚然的怪物，或因此负面看待它守在死者床边的举动。

Dosa said he hopes his newly released book, “Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat” will put the cat in a more favorable light as well as providing a book to help people whose loved ones are terminally ill.

多萨说，他希望他新近出版的著作，《和奥斯卡一起巡视病房：一只天赋异禀的平凡猫》，可以为这只猫正名，同时提供一本书，帮助那些绝症患者的亲友。

“I wanted to write a book that would go beyond Oscar's peculiarities, to tell why he is important to family members and caregivers who have been with him at the end of a life.” Dosa said Oscar's story is fascinating on many levels. “There is a lot to tell about what Oscar does, but there is a lot to tell on the human level of what family members go through at the end of life when they are dealing with a loved one in a nursing home or with advanced dementia,” he said.

「我想写一本书，不只着墨于奥斯卡的特殊能力，我想告诉大家，为什么它对伴随濒死病患的家属和医护人员很重要。」多萨说，奥斯卡的故事在很多层面上都很有意义。「奥斯卡的本事真是数不胜数，但在人的方面，也有很多故事可说，像家属在面对疗养院或重症痴呆的亲人即将死亡时的心路历程。」他说。

“Perhaps the book is a little more approachable because there is a cat in it. We really know so little about nursing homes, and this tries to get rid of this myth that they are horrid factories where people go to die.”

「也许因为这本书主角是猫，而更平易近人一点，但我们对养老院所知有限。本书试图走出认定养老院只是让人准备死亡的恐怖厂房的迷思。」

In his book, Dosa offers no solid scientific explanation for Oscar's behaviour. He suggests Oscar is able - like dogs, which can reportedly smell cancer - to detect ketones, the distinctly-odoured biochemicals given off by dying cells.

在他书中，多萨并未对奥斯卡的行为提出扎实可信的科学解释。他暗示，奥斯卡可能像狗一样，据说狗可以闻出癌症患者死亡细胞散发的明显生化物质酮的味道。

Another possibility: “I think he is following the patterning behavior of the staff,” says Joan Teno, MD, professor of Brown University, Providence, who also cares for Steere House residents. “This is an excellent nursing home. If a dying person is alone, the staff will actually go in so the patient is not alone. They will hold a vigil.” Oscar has seen that pattern repeated many times, and may be mimicking it. “Animals are intuitive,” she says. “We don't give them enough credit.”

另一种可能性：「我认为牠只是模仿工作人员的行为模式，」乔安妮．特诺医学博士兼布朗大学教授说，他也是斯蒂尔之家的医护人员。「这是一所很好的养老院，如果一个垂死患者孤伶伶的，工作人员会去守着他，使他不至于太孤单。他们会彻夜不眠地临终守护。」奥斯卡多次看到这种模式，牠可能有样学样。「动物凭直觉行动，」她说，「我们未能充分肯定它们的贡献。」

Far from recoiling from Oscar's presence, now they know its significance, relatives and friends of patients have been comforted and sometimes praised the cat in newspaper death notices and eulogies. As Oscar's reputation grew, so did appreciation for his mission. “The largest hospice organization in the state presented him with a certificate acknowledging his work,”Dosa says.

现在他们再也不会对奥斯卡大驾光临退避三舍，他们知道这其中的意义。病患亲友也因此得到安慰，有时报上的悼词和讣闻还会顺带赞扬这只猫。随着奥斯卡名气愈来愈大，愈来愈多人感谢它的使命感。「美国最大的临终关怀机构还颁发证书，承认牠的贡献，」多萨说。

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wyd2008

thanks!