A DOCTOR has revealed the first senses people lose just before they die.
James Hallenbeck, an expert in palliative care at Stanford University, shared his list of the order in which dying patients lose their senses.
GettyStanford’s James Hallenbeck is an expert in dying people’s experiences[/caption]
In his book Palliative Care Perspectives, he wrote: “First hunger and then thirst are lost. Speech is lost next, followed by vision.
“The last senses to go are usually hearing and touch.”
The expert explained that it is difficult for ordinary people to tell what a dying person can sense after they lose the ability to speak.
Heart attack survivors sometimes report a “white light” experience in their head, with vivid images flashing across the mind.
Dr Hallenbeck added: “From this point on, we can only infer what is actually happening.
“My impression is that this is not a coma, a state of unconsciousness, as many families and clinicians think, but something like a dream state.
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“It’s like a storm coming in. The waves start coming up.
“But you can never say, well, when did the waves start coming up?
“The waves get higher and higher, and eventually, they carry the person out to sea.”
Patients’ loss of senses is part of a process at the very end of life called “active dying”.
The “white light” experience is believed to come from surging neurochemicals in the brain.
As some parts of the brain die, others – including the visual system – go into overdrive.
It comes after a hospice nurse revealed the eight signs which reveal that someone is about to die.