People die in many different places, these include as hospitals, nursing homes or their own homes. Meg (Workbook 1, p103), died in her own home. She was seen to have an early death exacerbated by rheumatoid arthritis. Meg died suddenly despite all medical interventions to keep her alive and therefore her death was not seen as good by the medical profession. Although her death was not related to her illness and because she died suddenly, her family did not see her death as bad but more as a release from the long drawn out life of medical intervention she would have gone through if she had not have died early. Many people who die in their own homes die suddenly either from an unexpected death or from suicide and this is therefore seen from a professional point of view as a bad death.
When people die in these different places it could be said that their quality of death is affected. For example, many people, who die in a hospital, die because something traumatic has happened to them. They may have been involved in an accident or they might have been terminally ill for some time, as seen in the case study of Vic (Workbook 1, p98). Vic had been ill for some time and was a regular patient at the hospital. He was divorced from his wife and he had never been close to his sons, only making contact with them at Christmas, he was very alone. When the staff on the hospital ward realised that Vic was deteriorating they made the decision to contact his sons, who then came to visit. The day after, Vic died.
If a person dies without regaining consciousness following an accident, it leaves many unanswered questions for the family left behind and they can blame themselves for what has happened. This kind of death can be seen as a bad death to close relatives. However this was not the case for Vic’s sons as they felt that because they had been with their father the day before he died that “…he had been released by their visit” (Workbook 1, p99) although they did feel somewhat guilty that they were not at the hospital the day their father died.
When people die suddenly or what is suggested as before their time (Bradbury, 2000), then they have not had the chance to arrange the way they want to be buried or perhaps cremated, especially if there is no close family or a Will written.
Nursing home or residential home deaths are associated with old age and are seen as being good deaths. The people are usually very old and die of natural causes i.e. old age. Many people go into a residential home because they are unable to cope at home on their own and most are still very able to do things for them selves and tend to reside there for many years. Li (Workbook 1, p100) had been living in residential care for 5 years before she died. Her death was seen in a positive manner as she died at a good age and never saw death as scary because of her religion. Being from a Chinese culture, Li had prepared for her death and died with all her beliefs being adhered to and with her family beside her.
Sometimes hospitals discharge patients into nursing homes as they are too old and frail to go back to their own homes. When this happens the elderly person can sometimes give up hope and die within days of being admitted. My own experience of this is where, on several occasions, elderly people have been admitted into a nursing home but only live for a couple of days. On one occasion this was just a few hours. It is almost as though they feel that they were put into a home to die. Many people today still see nursing homes being the beginning to the end of their lives.
One of the major fears surrounding death is cancer. People are scared of cancer and see it as affecting their quality of dying, although many cancer patients die being in no pain due to today’s medical advances and many people who experience cancer are still alive and cured from the illness. People do not understand the disease and many only hear unhappy memories from others who have experienced a relative who died from cancer. The fear that people have about cancer is not justified by the biological facts about the disease and although beliefs may be mistaken, people believe, that it always kills those who suffer from it and that they always suffer in pain. These beliefs remain powerful (K260, V.C).
Ridley (2000) suggests that it is harder to come to terms with someone dying through suicide than to find a meaning to death caused by illness or an accident. This is because when a person commits suicide they usually die before their time. Although the time is ready for them the family members and public who hear of the news believe that they must have died a horrible death, being alone and wanting to die affecting their quality of death. Artists in the nineteenth century portrayed death especially suicides as heroic and romantic although it was seen as morally wrong (K260, V.C.).
To decide whether the type of death and the places where people die affects their quality of dying or not, much depends on how people portray death. Believing that a person should die in a certain way means that when someone dies in a different manner to the way one expected, the death can be looked upon in a bad way. Therefore, people only see a good death, as the kind of death that their culture has lead them to believe is good.
The person who has died themselves may or may not realise what kind of death they have experienced, as there are no facts or text books on life after death only of near death experiences and it is only the living who are left behind, such as close relatives or friends who can be judgemental about the way a person has died.
In this paper, I have discussed the different places where people die, the diverse ways in which people die and what kind of impact that this has on their quality of death. I have concluded that although the places and types of death may have an impact on the person who is dying, they also have a considerable effect on the other people involved.
References
K260 Course team (2004) Death and Dying, Workbook 1, Part 2, Section12.
Bradbury, M. (2000) ‘The Good Death’ in Dickenson, D. and Johnson, M. (2000) Death, Dying and Bereavement, London, Sage.
K260 Course Team (2004) Death and Dying, One Fact Many Facets, Video Cassette.
Ridley, S. (2000) ‘Sudden Death from Suicide’ in Dickenson, D. and Johnson, M. (2000) Death, Dying and Bereavement, London, Sage.
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