The Pathway to Death
People who are dying may move towards death over longer or shorter periods of
time and in different ways. Different causes of death result in different
paths toward death.
The pathway to death may be long and slow, sometimes lasting years, or it may
be a rapid fall towards death (for example, after a car accident) when the chronic phase of the illness, if it exists at all, is short. The peaks and
valleys pathway describes the patient who repeatedly gets better and then
worse again (for example, a patient with AIDS or leukemia). Another pathway to
death may be described as a long, slow period of failing health and then a
period of stable health (for example, patients whose health gets worse and then
stabilizes at a new, more limiting level). Patients on this pathway must
readjust to losses in functioning ability.
Deaths from cancer often occur over a long period of time, and may involve
long-term pain and suffering, and/or loss of control over one’s body or mind.
Deaths caused by cancer are likely to drain patients and families physically
and emotionally because they occur over a long period of time.
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