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In the upcoming new episode of House entitled Here Kitty, the patient is convinced that a cat has predicted her death. On the surface, it seems like a silly idea. But there’s a real cat that seems to have that ability. His name is Oscar and he lives in a nursing home in Rhode Island.
Apparently, Oscar has a special ability that no one can explain, but which is very helpful and important to those he lives with. Oscar comforts dying nursing home patients. He doesn’t do this at anyone’s bidding, he just naturally knows when it’s about 2 to 4 hours before someone’s death and snuggles up with them to comfort them as they pass.
Oscar lives in a nursing home in Providence, RI and the nursing staff has come to take his actions very seriously. He’s been accurate 25 times. They say that when Oscar curls up with a patient, they use it as a signal to call the family and try to make the patient as comfortable as possible.
“Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one,” said Dr. David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University. He even wrote an article about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine.
He’s a truly remarkable cat. He’s received a special plaque celebrating his “compassionate hospice care” and was even covered by the CBS evening news.
No one is sure how Oscar knows it’s time to comfort a patient, but you can be sure, his work will continue to help the patients he lives with.
What are your thoughts about a cat having this extraordinary ability?
The cat is picking up some phernomes or some cahnges in the person’s magnectic field. Like drug sniffing dogs. I don’t find it odd at all. Frankly most nursing staff can tell you within 2-4 hrs. of when a patient is going to die. They just don’t put us on the evening news. Not as cute I guess.
1152 days ago
[...] she dies. She tells them that she knows she’s going to die because the cat told her so. This is based on an actual cat and looks like it’s going to be terrific! I found three video clips from the episode to share [...]
I have just finished med school here in Spain, and there was actually a teacher (a psych teacher, in fact) that told us about that Oscar cat. He put it like an curious case, but not more. It started a debate from the class, tough, which was its purpose I suppose :) Anyway, I found it interesting.
Great job here with the site, btw! :)
Cats are awesome!