Study refutes notion that death takes a holiday

A recent study done by Donn Young, a statistician and research scientist at Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center.Has refuted the idea that people can somehow hold off on dying. I think this study may be flawed! When my mother died I would swear to the fact that she waited one day later than my daughters birthday as not to spoil her birthay.In another odd twist ,one of grandmother's did die on Christmas day, but that was also her birthday!

(HealthDayNews) -- Among health-care workers and relatives of the terminally ill, tales of patients who somehow "held on" past the holidays or birthdays are common. Over time, these stories have given rise to the widespread belief that patients can delay death through sheer force of will.

www.wivb.com...

I think if you ask around, or may be it happened to someone in your life, I do think people can control, at least to a certain extent their time of death.

My Grandfather had a stroke and the family was back in forth to the hospital for weeks. He had another while he was there and the doctors basically told us he would die... probably that night. Before we left the hospital that night we asked him to please hold on through the night so we could get some much needed rest and not have to run back to the hospital in the middle of the night. The past few weeks had been hell.
Sure enough we didn't get the call that he had passed until around 7am or 8am the next day.

Recently, in october, I had an Uncle in the hospital who was dying of lung cancer. (never smoked a day in his life!) This may sound a little screwed up... but I had a Halloween party to go to and I didn't want to miss it. I was just thinking to myself 'please hold on past the weekend, Buddy'.
He died on Monday.

Could be coincidences...could not be.... I think if the person is able to they can hold on a little longer. If you've ever seen enough seriously ill people in the hospital....it's hard to explain... but you can tell when they've just given up on getting better and they kind of give in to death and accept it.

*Shrugs* Who knows? They should try that study again.

My experience was a little more basic. It had to do with my favourite dog. Had him for 14 years. Nurtured him from a young pup and we were inseparable.

Towards the end, I took up a posting in London for 6 months. Off and on, I heard from my family that my favourite doggy had taken a turn for the worse and the vet had confirmed kidney failure and he could barely walk. I prepared myself for the worst during those times.

Off and on, they would inform me that he would go any time very very soon. He was not eating well and was passing blood. This went on for an entire month.

The night I arrived home, I could see he was in a bad shape but he seemed calm and happy. At about 2 in the morning, I heard him howling. I went to him. He staggered and lay down. I sat with him and he sort of reached out and nuzzled up against my lap. He took a big breathe and passed some motion and died. Yup, I truly believe that he hung on for me to return.

Of corse animals and man can control there time of death up to a point .Whos body is it anyway? And what is it that controls ever cell in your body? Ovesly You (your brain can force the issue of when you die up to a point given canser or someother debilation problem.
But you (your brain cant do it forever as it does take a minum of working cells . It doesent take esp to learn how to use your brain to control things in your body you usaly do automaticly .Its like breathing you do it without thinking of it but can hold your breath if you want. You can control your heart rate just as easly.When I was younger I was able to do this easly .

I dont know about the takin a holiday part. My grandfather died on Christmas Eve. Im sure alot are probably coincidences but I think will power determines alot when someone dies. Some people can hold on longer then others.

My maternal grandmother died right before Thanksgiving, on November 21, 1999. She was buried the day before Thanksgiving.

My dad's mother died on Father's Day 1987. My mother's father died right around Mother's Day, May 9, 1996. Now how's THAT one?

Lots of times people can sense when they're going to die. The day my dad died, July 23, 2000, my husband and I were getting ready to head back to Ohio (he lived in Detroit). My dad kept urging my mother to go ahead and go to the laundramat, since they were waiting for a new washer. He was adamant about it too, and we decided to wait until she came back before we left for home.

Not an hour later he collapsed and I wound up calling 911. I guess he didn't want her to see him die. My sister was on an AA picnic and we already knew she'd be absolutely devastated. My dad had been able to tell me things about his condition he'd never tell my sister because she couldn't handle it. I guess he somehow knew that my husband and I would be able to handle it and would know what to do. Let me tell you, I was on autopilot that morning!

I am more inclined to think that family members chose main holidays to die so as no to be forgotten.

So far, I have a uncle that die, two days before Christmas and another one 5 days before, a cousin that die at 17 on Christmas day, and just this week my grandmother pass way last Tuesday and was buried on the 23 and my fathers only surviving sister from the same mother just passed away yesterday morning and was buried today.

So I guess Christmas is the favorite time of the years for many members of my family.

By the way my grandfather pass away 3 years ago two weeks before Christmas also.

So we spend christmas remembering our departed ones.

This haunts me even now.
My father was dying of cancer. I got a call in the middle of the night that he wouldn't last until morning. His two sister (my aunts), my mother and I sat around the deathbed wastching him breath, each breath slower and slower. YOu knew the next breath could be his last, it was hard to tear your eyes away even to blink.

My mother, his wife of many years and known to be a somewhat selffish women, decided to go to the restroom.
As soon as she left the room, my father breathed his last. To this day, I believe he knew, and chose that moment.

As someone who has been there on a few occasions, I have never believed this assertion. I was doing some research the other day on dying and this subject was mentioned as a truism, so I thought, well there must be some evidence.

I doubt that this research, as exhaustive as it seems, will put to rest a perception that gives hope to those who need it. People die when theirs autonomic systems become fail.



[edit on 04/12/26 by GradyPhilpott]

I am starting to feel that death is really knocking on our doors, today my husband just found out that his boss passed away yesterday on Christmas day, from a hart attack, his entire work section is devastated.

I think that this is not very good, something is in the air. Very sad indeed.

It brings me to the conclusions that indeed people does prefer to die on certain important days of the year.

As someone who has been there on a few occasions, I have never believed this assertion. I was doing some research the other day on dying and this subject was mentioned as a truism, so I thought, well there must be some evidence.

I doubt that this research, as exhaustive as it seems, will put to rest a perception that gives hope to those who need it. People die when their autonomic systems fail.

EDIT: Posted to rectify the unintelligible sentence in previous post

[edit on 04/12/26 by GradyPhilpott]

I believe we can hold off......When my great grandfather was dying, everyone was standing around his bed crying and sobbing, he kept telling them to leave and no one would...he got up out of bed, got dressed and sat on the front porch and told them when they left him alone to die in peace he's go back to bed and die....and that's exactly what he did! My father passed a year ago this last October, the day before my birthday he said he wouldn't die till he made peace with my brother and right after my brother came and they talked...he passed......