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Googling
the question “what is the last sense a dying person will lose” will give us millions
of results in a matter of seconds, and most of those results will give us
articles telling that it is hearing that will go last, with the assumption of
course that it is a natural death. Most of these articles are testimonies of
people working in hospice section, or even people who experience sudden
unconsciousness. Yet, there is still no concrete evidence if it is hearing that
will go last in a dying person. Most of these articles offer theories based on
experiences and limited scientific data.
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Dying,
as the Mosby’s Medical, Nursing & Allied Health Dictionary defines it, is
the cessation of life as indicated by the fading activity of the brain and
central nervous system, cardiovascular system, and respiratory system as
observed and declared by the physician. When
dying, the heart of a patient will slowly stop its beat, causing the flow of
blood through the body unstable. The remaining blood supply is reserved for the
brain and heart. This will cause the reducing functionality of almost all the
organs of the body. The eyesight goes when the eyelids lose its strength to
stay open; the skin, which is also much dependent in the flow of blood, will
lose its ability to feel; the sense of smell and taste probably stay. The ears,
meanwhile, can still pick up all the sounds in the surrounding, and because it
is not much dependent on the blood flow, it is still capable of hearing. It
needs only a little amount of blood and this amount is decently supplied since
the ears are near to the brain. Besides, all of the senses involve chemical
reactions, except for hearing which is fully mechanical. All of this would
apply, of course, to a person who does not suffer organ disability.
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Hearing,
meanwhile, is the process by which the ears pick up all the vibrations in air
pressure and encodes this information into an electrical signal that the brain
can understand. Studies showed that the ears are independent of other organs
and need just a little brain activity. There’s no problem of picking up the
sounds since it requires no physical strength to be operated; what’s crucial is
the process of interpreting these sounds- a function of the brain. But research
showed that within six to ten minutes after the heart stops, the brain is still
functioning; which means that the electrical impulses sent by the ears can
still be read and interpreted by the brain. Science has also used the so-called
Electroencephalogram (EEG) to gain understanding of the process of dying. EEG
is a graphic record of brain waves representing electrical activity in the
brain. For a dying patient, EEG shows that the electrical signals encoded by
the ears are still present.
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Despite the advancements in Science and Technology, the art of dying is still the one
that is not much explored. For now, it remains mysterious. But at least we have
these bits of hypotheses. For the some people, they may be sure that a dying
person can still hear. For Science, it requires further studies.
Sources:
Clima, Terrell. “Death and Dying”. TLC Nursing. TLC Nursing Continuing
Education Units,n.d. http://www.tlcnursingceus.com.
24 September 2012
Harris,
Tom. “How Hearing Works”. How Stuff Works.
Discovery Company, n.d. http://science.howstuffworks.com.
24 September 2012
“It’s Easy to Believe That Hearing is the Last
sense to Go”. The Spokesman-Review.n.p.
6 September 2011. http://www.spokesman.com. 24 September 2012
Neila22.
“Why is hearing the last sense a person loses while dying?”.Wiki Answers. Answers Corporation, 15
April 2011. http://wiki.answers.com. 24 September 2012
Scott,
Jaclin Meade. “Can the Dying Hear?”. Bella
Online. Minerva WebWorks LLC. n.d. http://www.bellaonline.com. 24 September
2012
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