Loved ones listening right to the end

‘It is a comfort to be able to say goodbye and express love (to the dying),’ MD says

New research from the University of B.C. shows that even on their deathbeds, our loved ones are listening.

The research, which is the first in-depth look at whether humans can still hear voices when they are about to die, was published recently in Scientific Research and came as the result of a collaboration between UBC researchers and Vancouver’s St. John Hospice.

“In the last hours before an expected natural death, many people enter a period of unresponsiveness,” said the study’s lead author, Elizabeth Blundon, who was a PhD student at the time of the study.

“Our data shows that a dying brain can respond to sound, even in an unconscious state, up to the last hours of life.”

Dr. Romayne Gallagher, a palliative care physician at St. John Hospice who has since retired, had long wondered whether hearing was the last sense to go after seeing positive reactions in dying individuals when loved ones continued speaking to them in their final moments.

She reached out to UBC psychology professor Lawrence Ward to see whether this could be explored. Ward and Blundon then sought and received consent from 13 families at St. John to participate in the research.

Using electroencephalography or EEG — a way to measure electrical activity in the brain — the UBC team recorded brain activity in healthy individuals and then from patients at St. John Hospice, both while they were conscious and again when they became unresponsive.

Brain recordings were successfully obtained from five of the study’s participants when they became unresponsive.

In their results, Ward and Blundon found that brains of dying individuals responded similarly to brains of those who were healthy when they heard voices or tones.

Our data shows that a dying brain can respond to sound, even in an unconscious state, up to the last hours of life.

But while evidence of brain activity supports the idea that dying persons can still hear, it doesn’t confirm whether they are aware of what they’re hearing.

“This research gives credence to the fact that hospice nurses and physicians noticed that the sounds of loved ones helped comfort people when they were dying,” Gallagher said.

“And to me, it adds significant meaning to the last days and hours of life and shows that being present, in person or by phone, is meaningful. It is a comfort to be able to say goodbye and express love.”