Death is still a mystery in many ways. People wonder what happens after
crossing over and
invent things about death that either comfort or scare them, or turn to religion
for comfort. It’s largely
unknown exactly what happens within someone’s mind as they die, since researches
can’t ask dead people for a scientific account of their final experience. What happens after
someone dies, whether someone's hair continues to grow or harvesting their
organs, is something people are often unclear about. Until
someone is faced with learning that they’re dying or that a loved one doesn’t
have long to live, they don’t know how to proceed with the situation or what the best care
options are. For many people, the most difficult form of death is
a sudden death, the idea that a loved one can be taken away from them in an
instant.
It’s only natural to want to say goodbye, just as it’s natural to want
comfort and peace while crossing over into the realm of eternal darkness.
Myth 15) Your Nails and Hair Keep Growing After You Die
It’s a common myth that after you die, your hair and nails continue to grow. A
modern reason behind this belief may be because hair and nails are understood to
be made out of "dead" cells. This myth is passed on from person to person,
labeled as fact from common misunderstood information about what happens to the
body postmortem.
Anatomy of the Nail: A. Nail Plate; B. lunula; C. root; D.
sinus; E. Matrix; F. nail bed; G. eponychium; H. free margin
By KDS444
via Wikimedia Commons
After death, the body slowly dehydrates. This dehydration causes hair and
nails to appear to grow longer because as tissues dehydrate, they shrink and
pull back. This makes finger nails longer relative to the fingertips and
exposing hair previously covered by the skin of the scalp.
Myth 14) Cremation Is Eco-friendly
It’s commonly believed that cremation is an environmentally friendly means of
disposing of a cadaver. Cremation involves the complete incineration of a dead
body. It may
be done as part of the funeral, including burning the body on a pyre, or may be
performed after a funeral. In many countries, cremation is usually performed in
a crematorium within a crematory that contains furnaces called cremators. These
furnaces run as high as 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. A body may or may not be placed
in a container, such as a box or casket, before being placed within the cremator
chamber.
Cremation is not, in fact, environmentally
friendly. It releases toxic emissions that can cause local environmental
problems including the release of
mercury or other hard metals that can be contained in the corpse. Within some jurisdictions
it is required that abatement filters be installed to help decrease the release
of other serious pollutants into the atmosphere. These filters cannot stop the
release of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas largely
responsible for global warming. If the body has been embalmed, it also releases
the embalming fluid’s constituent chemicals that after the procedure, become heat-altered
and in some cases more harmful.
Depending on the cremator it may use oil or natural gas for fuel, and both of
these chemicals are
unsustainable and environmentally unfriendly due to being fossil fuel-based.
Propane is derived from natural gas or petroleum and coal gas, which is created
from the destructive distillation of coal, are two other accelerants used in cremations.
Myth 13) Dying is Always Painful
People often believe that dying is by default, painful. Whether the death is
caused by a long-term illness, an accident, a sudden heart attack or stroke or
some other method of dying, people strongly believe death is always a painful
event.
Even people who are with family members or friends when they die and witness the
act, believe
this to be true.
While it’s true that many deaths, like those sustained in car accidents or
by drowning can be extremely painful, it’s by no means always the case. In countries with
ready access to painkillers, even those dying of cancer or an infection can be
relieved of their terminal pain. According to Tani Bahti, a nurse who responded to myths such
as that dying is always painful in an article on CureToday.com says: “Pain is not an
expected part of the dying process.” The Hospice Foundation of America agrees
with her. It says that many people die without experiencing any pain at all.
Both agree that, if a dying person does have pain from their condition, it can
be treated with a range of prescribed medications. The HFA also says that, if
medications alone are not enough to stop pain, a combination of approaches may
be used.
Myth 12) If You’re an Organ Donor, Doctors Won’t Try to Save You
Organ donors are usually those who agree that, after their death, their organs
may be used and transplanted into people whose organs are failing, have severe
tissue damage, or have gone blind due to corneal injuries. In some cases, the
family of a dying or recently deceased person agrees that their loved one’s body
may be harvested for transplantation purposes. One organ donor can save up to eight lives
through organ donation and tissues can be used to treat many more. Because organ
donors’ bodies can be used to treat so many people, there’s a common
misconception that doctors won’t try as hard to save donors.
Organ donation is only considered until every effort has been exhausted in
attempt to save the patient’s life including maintaining life via ventilators and other mechanical devices,
and harvesting is only conducted after a patient is deceased. Once
all options have been exhausted a neurologist or neurosurgeon will conduct a
series of brain wave activity tests, usually multiple times, to determine if the
patient has any brain function. The team who attempts to save the patient’s life
is a completely different group of medical professionals than the team that
harvests organs and tissue, so there is absolutely no issue of a conflict of
interest present.
Myth 11) People Always See a White Light or Tunnel When They’re Dying
We’ve all heard of someone who says they’ve had a near-death experience claim they saw a white light, a tunnel, or both. This
light is sometimes described as warm or welcoming. The people who claim to have
had
these experiences often say it was beckoning to them, or calling to them.
Usually, they say they felt safe or serene and oddly comforted by the vision. Sometimes
the people describing these experiences were actually nowhere near their death.
Other times, they have indeed had their heart stop or have otherwise experienced
something that would have been fatal without medical intervention.
In a Dutch study researchers interviewed 344 mostly elderly hospital patients whose hearts had stopped, meaning they nearly died and
the blood
flow to their brains was cut off. Just eighteen percent of them experienced a
white light, tunnel, or anything similar.
Taking this study as a benchmarking tool, less than a quarter of these
patients experiencing a white light or tunnel means that trying to state a white
light or tunnel as a standard death-related occurrence, is just short-sighted
reasoning.
Myth 10) People Die as They Have Lived
Conventional wisdom alludes that people will often die similarly to the manner
in which they lived their life. If someone is
passive then they won’t fight death. If they have a combative personality, then
they will most likely struggle with crossing over. Beyond simply reasoning, this belief gains
some traction as some medical professionals
also hold it to be true. In an article on RegionalHospiceCT.org, a nurse case manager for the
organization states, “People think that dying alone is terrible. I
always tell them, some people, especially introverted people, want to be alone.
A mother may want to spare her children, one last time. People die as they have
lived.”
However, the Hospice Foundation of America disagrees. They claim that that
while this type of reasoning is generally
true, many people change as they get closer and closer to their death. This is especially
true if they have received good care during a terminal illness or had other
positive experiences close to the end of their life. An article in the New York
Times goes further and says experts in the field of hospice care believe that
the concept of death can transform and liberate
patients. An AARP interview with a doctor who works in palliative care says the
myth is half true in that people have a right to die as they have lived, but
they frequently exhibit remarkable changes as they get closer and closer to
their death; which is most certainly their right.
Myth 9) Drowning is a Euphoric Way to Die
When a person is drowning they usually don’t flail around, make a lot of noise, or draw attention to
themselves. People will argue that this means that it must be a pretty peaceful
way to die. It seems that this myth was generated from someone distantly knowing
about another person who was extremely close to drowning, and hearing that they
claimed it was an almost euphoric sensation. The telephone game is to blame for
this myth even registering on this list.
The truth is that until the victim loses consciousness, drowning is a
terrifying experience as the victim can do nothing to save their own life. The
reason drowning people don’t flail or cry out as they drown is due to an
instinctive drowning response. It “represents a person's attempts to avoid the
actual or perceived suffocation in the water,” and is automatic. They are
physically unable to call for help because their mouths move above and below
water too fast for breathing and speech, and any moment they do find themselves
above water breathing takes precedent over any cries for help. They cannot wave
for help because their brains force their arms to press down against the water.
Their bodies stay upright as they die terrified, and most likely alone unless
they were forcibly drowned by an assailant.
Myth 8) You Can Die from Losing the Will to Live
People think there is a “will to live” within humans and without it as the
reasoning goes, the person dies naturally. The myth says that people who are
suffering from a terminal illness and “give up” fighting, will soon die. The movie The Happening works along this premise.
In the movie, a substance given off by plants is carried by the wind and causes anyone exposed to
the outdoor air, to automatically lose their will to live and do anything to
take their own life. The writers based this premise as if there is a switch in
people’s heads that controls their will to live that can be simply be shut off
by some outside influence.
Suicide is typically the final result of someone losing their will to live.
There are also circumstances where terminally ill people wish to die simply
because they are sick of suffering. It’s one of two circumstances in which the loss of a “will to live” is
accurate. The other is when a person carries out a mass murder that will almost
certainly end in death, in this case suicide by police. A study conducted from the mid-1960s until 2000 found
that pessimism increased the risk of early death, but pessimism isn’t the same
as losing the “will to live”.
Myth 7) Don’t Cry in Front of the Dying
People often believe that they should only be positive and show love in front
of a dying loved one. They feel they should always be upbeat unless their dying
family member or friend initiates a serious conversation. If a conversation
encompassing life and death issues occurs, it is believed that they should “stay
strong” and not cry, though they may admit they’ll miss the dying person or are
sad that they’re dying. The belief is that crying in front of the dying person
is selfish and will make them feel guilty, as though they have no right to be
dying or they should be able to stop it from occurring.
An article on Caring.com that was written by a hospice nurse disagrees with
the myth that you shouldn’t cry in front of the dying. She says, “They know
you're sad. Having the courage to bare your emotions gives the dying person
permission to be candid about his or her feelings. Your tears are evidence of
your love. And they can also be a relief to the person, telegraphing that you
understand what's happening.” In other words, if you want them to feel
comfortable expressing themselves, express yourself in a manner that is accurate
of your true
emotions.
Myth 6) Keep Children Away from the Dying Person
Parents are often advised to keep their children away from people who are
dying, including close friends and family members. Parents have even been
encouraged to keep children
from getting too close to understanding that a family pet has passed away. This
has led parents to tell stories like, “we took Spot
to a farm where he will be happy forever, a farm with big fields and rabbits he
can chase.” However, parents can’t lie about what happened to Grandpa forever.
Even though parents will eventually have to explain to their
children that a loved one has died, they’re told that it’s unhealthy and
emotionally damaging for a child to be exposed to death right away. This
reasoning holds true even when the child will ultimately see the loved one in a
casket at the funeral.
Rather than telling children their loved one is dying or has died, it’s often
better for them to see what’s happening with their own eyes. Children have vivid imaginations, and
if they don't see for themselves what happened to their deceased family member, they’ll
often conjure up gruesome or terrifying images of what happened to the person. Letting
children visit a dying relative is not only better for the child's psyche, but
that it also allows the dying person the company of the young people in their
lives during an extremely emotionally trying situation.
Myth 5) Sudden Death Causes Survivors Greater Grief Than Expected Death
Many people fear that their loved ones will die with little or no warning. They
worry that losing the people they love unexpectedly will be emotionally more
difficult to process and take longer to adjust to. People worry that their grief
will be worse, less bearable or stronger and have much more damaging effects on
their quality of life. This idea is reinforced by entertainment, whether in
books, movies, or television shows. Entertainment aside, sudden death that is
especially violent or traumatic for the survivor, makes coping for surviving
loved ones a very difficult task.
Grief is not greater in sudden death that in foreseeable death. However, the
ability to cope for survivors is decreased when a death is unexpected. This may be the case because people who
do get to say goodbye often start grieving before their loved one dies and
already begin to process it. Besides the usual grieving process, survivors will
feel stunned and shocked by the fact that their loved one died so suddenly. The
results for survivors can be extremely overwhelming and cause severely damaging
alterations to their psychological well-being. A Seton Healthcare article says that sudden deaths often don’t
make sense to survivors. The grief process is also different, since the death is
harder to accept, and people’s immediate reaction to the death is more intense
often involving heavy denial issues.
Myth 4) Hospice is an Institution
Hospice involves palliative care for people who are terminally or seriously
ill. This means its focus is on preventing and relieving the suffering of
patients. Because it’s for people who are seriously or terminally ill, people
who know little about hospice care frequently believe that it only takes place
in a hospital or other institutional setting so it can be easily overseen by
doctors and other healthcare providers.
This is simply not the case. While hospice care can be performed in
hospitals, nursing homes, and other institutions, it’s most often performed at
home. United States hospice care was an industry raking in over $2.8 billion in
1995, and $1.9 billion of
that went to the 1,857 providers Medicare-funded patients used. Out of this
gigantic industry, 72 percent of all hospice providers were non-profit
organizations, most of which were proprietary and not part of a corporation,
hospital, nursing home, or skilled nursing facility. As of 2008, more than a
third of all dying Americans, from children to seniors used hospice services
within the comfort of their own homes. It allows patients to die in a familiar
setting without any pain or needless suffering associated with being confined to
a strange place.
Myth 3) People
Choose to Have Assistance Suicide Because They’re Depressed
The major myth about assisted suicide, assisted death, or euthanasia, is that
people who are depressed and mentally ill will take advantage of it by the
thousands. The reasoning goes that it’s a sure way to die without any foul-ups
like waking up after a suicide attempt, which is a real risk associated with
nearly any method of suicide attempted at home. Also, the depressed person isn’t
alone when they choose to die.
That, however, is a complete misrepresentation of legal assisted suicide. In
the U.S. states where assisted suicide is legal, multiple meetings with a
physician are required before it can be performed. The physician may only
prescribe a pharmaceutical overdose to patients who are terminally ill,
typically with less than six months to live. They must also conduct a mental
health assessment to determine the patient’s competence to decide if their
desire to die is made in sound mind. A patient may be depressed due to their
terminal illness, but are only eligible for assisted suicide based on the
factors associated with their illness, not their emotional state because of a
terminal illness. The patient’s physician may then prescribe a lethal overdose
of medication once all factors have been examined.
Myth 2) Good End-of-life Care is Expensive
When people think of end-of-life care, they typically think of a hospital
room where the dying person is in a hospital bed, machines beeping, tubes and
wires attached to the patient, maybe even with a ventilator keeping the patient alive.
They imagine the cost of all that, which insurance may not even cover, and it
easily adds up to tens of thousands of dollars very quickly in their minds. They want the
best possible end-of-life care for their loved ones even when they estimate the
exuberant costs, and they almost always expect it in addition to being costly to
only being in a typically institutional setting.
The best end-of-life care typically does not take place in an institution,
such as a nursing home, skilled nursing facility, or hospital. Ideally,
end-of-life care has palliative care that provides relief from suffering and
pain, and counsels the patient towards the end. Additional services if
requested, include spiritual or religious support, comforting the grieving loved
ones, and providing the patient with the best quality of life possible in their
dire situation. That’s what hospice, not health care institutions like
hospitals, provides. Medicare covers most of the cost, as do insurance plans,
HMOs, and managed care plans. Better still, the majority of hospices are
non-profit and can be mostly low-cost or even sometimes free, ideally leaving
grieving families without any serious medical bills or serious debt related to
their family member passing away.
Myth 1) Everyone Dies in a Hospital
The vast majority of people believe that nearly everyone, whether their deaths
are sudden or expected and regardless of the cause, ultimately dies in a
hospital. They expect dying people to be attended by nurses in scrub uniforms
and doctors in lab coats, with their heart rates, brain waves, and anything else
they can imagine measured constantly. They think dying people are all hooked up
to IVs that administer medication around the clock.
That is not actually the case. Patients die every day with all the care they
need wherever home may be, all thanks to hospice. A patient’s home might be a
private home, a nursing home, an assisted living facility, or even a hospice
residence. That avoids all the discomfort typically associated with a hospital,
with its strange noises and disease-filled cold rooms. Hospice is less stressful
for the patient and even for their loved ones.
Final Words
Myths have always surrounded death. In ancient times, death was viewed as an
inevitability, not something that could be delayed. Even so, ancient people had
myths and fantastic beliefs about what happened to their loved ones when they
left this plane of existence. Whether it was that the dead person’s spirit was
taken away by a god, that people could journey into the realm of the dead and
return with their loved one, or that silver must be placed with the dead to pay
to ferry them to the underworld. Even in today's modern society, myths about
death still abound. More often, though, these myths are about what happens as a
person is dying, the care they’re given while dying, and the treatment they
receive during and after their death. Knowing what is true and what is blatantly
false about death and the care provided for the dying, will hopefully dispel any
strange and gruesome rumors about what really happens when someone passes away.
References: Myth 15) Your Nails and Hair Keep Growing After You Die
Remarque - (started the myth)
According to a question answered on NewScientist.com’s Last Word Blog,
the idea itself may originate from the novel "All Quiet on the Western
Front" by Enrich Maria Remarque, specifically the scene in which the
narrator, Paul Bäumer, thinks about the death of his friend, Kemmerich.
In the scene, Paul thinks about how Kemmerich’s nails will grow and
grow, as will his hair, though he’s dead.
Snopes.com - (one source of debunk)
Myth 14) Cremation Is Eco-friendly
CremationIowa.com - (cremation is not, in fact, environmentally
friendly...)
Myth 12) If You’re an Organ Donor, Doctors Won’t Try to Save You
OrganDonor.gov - (one organ donor can save up to eight lives through
organ donation...) (organ donation is not considered until every effort
has been made to save the patient’s life...)
UWHealth.org - (the team who attempts to save the patient’s life is not
the one that harvests organs and tissue.)
Myth 11) People Always See a White Light or Tunnel When They’re Dying
Science.HowStuffWorks.com - (while some people who survive heart
attacks, 10-20 percent of them, do have a near-death experience)
Myth 9) Drowning is a Euphoric Way to Die
Coast Guard’s ON SCENE - (The reason drowning people don’t flail or cry
out as they drown is due to the instinctive drowning response)
Myth 6) Keep Children Away from the Dying Person
Caring.com - (letting children visit a dying relative is not only better
for the child...)
Myth 5) Sudden Death Causes Survivors Greater Grief Than Expected
Death
Connect.Legacy.com [a site about grief support groups, among other
things] - (grief is not greater in sudden death...)
Myth 4) Hospice is an Institution
The Case Manager’s Training Manual - (United States hospice care was an
industry raking in over $2.8 billion in 1995)
Myth 3) People Choose to Have Assistance Dying Because They’re
Depressed
UIC.edu - (the patient’s physician may then prescribe a lethal overdose
of medication.)
Myth 2) Good End-of-life Care is Expensive
Providence Hospice of Seattle - (Medicare covers most of the cost, as do
insurance plans, HMOs, and managed care plans.)
Myth 1) Everyone Dies in a Hospital
Providence Hospice of Seattle - (a patient’s home might be a private
home, a nursing home, an assisted living facility, or even a hospice
residence. That..)
