I read an interesting paper about neuroscientists who had recorded the brain activity of a dying person and discovered rhythmic brain wave patterns around the time of death similar to those occurring during dreaming, memory recall, and meditation. (Vicente et al., 2022)  This offers a fascinating insight that the idea of life flashing before our eyes at the point of death might actually happen. The paper, Enhanced Interplay of Neuronal Coherance and Couple in the Dying Human Brain describes how an 87-year-old patient was being scanned for epilepsy after being treated for traumatic subdural hematoma but during this scanning the patient had heart failure and died. As the patient was undergoing a scan, the medical staff were able to see his brain activity at the point of death. What is interesting for my own research is that the comment about patient being 87 is the only common point of reference I have, as a non medical professional with their paper. This seems only human touch point.  There is no sense of who the person is, where they came from, who they left behind. There is not even mention made of whether this person was male or female.

Figure 1 from Vicente, R. et al. (2022) ‘Enhanced Interplay of Neuronal Coherence and Coupling in the Dying’, 14(February), pp. 1–11. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.813531.

Writing about the paper, science writer, Maryam Clark quotes one of the report authors who states, “As a neurosurgeon, I deal with loss at times. It is indescribably difficult to deliver the news of death to distraught family members. Something we may learn from this research is: although our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave us to rest, their brains may be replaying some of the nicest moments they experienced in their lives.” (Clark, 2022)

It is fascinating to me that while this neurosurgeon comments on loss and the death and how this might impact loved ones, this sense of the real person behind his research is missing. There is a juxtaposition between the science and the real person. While this might be for legal and entirely sensible reasons, it doesn’t feel right to me. In a paper which talks of the idea of replaying life events as we die, to deal with this in a purely scientific manner seems, at least in part, to miss out on the anthropological aspects to such a discovery.

I wonder if the neurosurgeons and other professionals feel divorced from their patients and their feelings? Insulated and keeping a sense of professional distance perhaps designed to keep them sane and able to keep doing their jobs. Another medical paper, The role of emotion in clinical decision making: an integrative literature review speaks of the emotional side of medicine. “Clinicians’ experienced emotions can and do affect clinical decision making…Importantly, this occurs in the absence of a clear theoretical framework and educational preparation” (Kozlowski et al., 2017) The paper tells us that research shows that emotions constitute a risk to decision making, logical reasoning and judgement and can impact patient safety. Kozlowski states, “Clinical decisions are often made in contexts that are emotionally challenging and require clinicians to actively manage their own and others’ emotions” (Kozlowski et al., 2017) However, there is disagreement over what role emotions should have in clinical decision making. In a paper, The heart of the art: emotional intelligence in nurse education, Freshwater and Stickley echo my own feelings on this matter explaining that memories and experiences come from our rational logical mind and from our emotional mind. Each influences our responses in different ways. Their paper says, “Every nursing intervention is affected by the master aptitude of emotional intelligence. It is not enough to attend merely to the practical procedure without considering the human recipient of the process. Whilst the rational mind may adequately attend to the necessary technical aspects of nursing procedures, it is not the place of the rational mind to intuitively sense the needs and emotions of the person at the receiving end of care. As Perls (1973) reminds us, every breath in every moment is significant”. (Freshwater and Stickley, 2004)

I would comment about the difference between these two sources, one by neurosurgeons speaks of need to keep emotion from decision making and how this outcome can be avoided; the other, a nursing paper, speaking of emotional intelligence and being aware of patient needs and implying that clinical decisions made without reference to emotional intelligence are mechanistic and lacking. I wonder if this, in part, might provide an explanation of why some doctors have a poor bedside manner and nursing staff are more interested and want to get involved?

Going back to the article about life flashing before our eyes as we die, I begin to understand why the individual is stripped away from medical scan images and medical records. I look at those scans and wonder why the article about the 87-year-old human is so lacking in humanity. After all without this real person, there would be no paper to be written by our neurosurgeons. I would suggest that such images are the most personal and intimate photographs which can be taken. Photographs which look beyond race or sex or opinions and show the form and structures within. Based on this, even if some medical professionals seem to have little interest or ability to express the human element of a patient, I feel more and more certain that my project has value.

References

Freshwater, D. and Stickley, T. (2004) ‘The heart of the art: Emotional intelligence in nurse education’, Nursing Inquiry, 11(2), pp. 91–98. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1800.2004.00198.x.

Kozlowski, D. et al. (2017) ‘The role of emotion in clinical decision making: An integrative literature review’, BMC Medical Education, 17(1), pp. 1–13. doi: 10.1186/s12909-017-1089-7.

Perls, F.S. (1973) The Gestalt Approach & Eye Eitness to Therapy.

Palo Alto, Calif.: Science & Behavior Books

Vicente, R. et al. (2022) ‘Enhanced Interplay of Neuronal Coherence and Coupling in the Dying’, 14(February), pp. 1–11. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.813531.