When your loved one is in hospice care, you know that death is inevitable, but you don’t always know exactly when it will come. This can cause undue stress for friends and relatives who may fear that if they go home to eat or rest, their loved one die while they are gone. At Suncrest Home Health and Hospice of Phoenix, we want to fill you in on some of the signs your loved one may be getting closer to death, in order to bring you some clarity and peace of mind.
Hospice Patients: The Reality
Many patients enter hospice care awake and alert. Those who are not familiar with hospice may find this surprising. They may believe all hospice patients are bedridden and unresponsive, but this is simply not true. Our hospice nurses visit patients all the time who can sit up, chat with visitors and possibly even ambulate with assistance.
Patients are allowed to enter hospice care only if their life expectancy is six months or less. Hospice care is not meant to be indefinite. If their lives extend longer than six months and their health is still poor, hospice care may be extended another six months.
But usually during the first six months, a patient’s condition worsens significantly, eventually resulting in their death. As a loved one of the patient, you may wonder if it is possible to tell when this time is approaching.
Signs of Impeding Death
Our hospice nurses have compiled a list of common signs that hospice patients are getting closer to death. These include:
- Loss of appetite/refusal of food and water
- More time spent sleeping
- Onset of or worsening mental confusion
- Falling body temperature
- Change in breathing patterns
- Loss of control over bladder and bowels
Altered Breathing Patterns
A change in your loved one’s breathing patterns can sometimes cause you distress. Breathing can become loud and labored. You may feel like this is a sign that your loved one is struggling or in pain. Rest assured they are not in pain — one of the tenets of hospice care is ensuring patients do not experience pain.
It is true that labored breathing is often tiring, however. You may notice as you sit at the bedside that each breath is further apart than you might have expected. The patient also may experience recurring episodes of apnea, where they stop breathing altogether. This too is often greatly stressful for loved ones because when breathing ceases, they believe death has occurred, only to have the patient start breathing again a moment later.
You may also sometimes hear a rattling sound when the patient breathes, the result of congestion in the lungs and throat that is difficult to relieve because of their constant prone position.
These changes in breathing are often signs that death is coming closer for your loved one.
Our hospice nurses work closely with patients’ loved ones, advising them as to how long they believe the patient might have left to live so that they may be present for their final moments. Suncrest Home Health and Hospice works hard to provide the best hospice care available to patients throughout the Phoenix area. Contact us today to learn more about hospice care for your loved one.
