Last month, I had a 91 year old hospice patient, "old John who was dying of CHF. His wife had died 2 years ago, so he was alone. He had long since given up being able to care for his pet dog "Pepper", a small, rat-looking, yappy dog who was 16 (112 in dog years) herself. Pepper had to be taken away a few weeks ago so she could be taken care of by John's daughter, who lived 10 miles away.

 

I was called in to see John after he had declined to the point that his doctor had discharged John from the hospital to go home and be comfortable for his last few hours.

 

By this point, John was comatose¹, nonresponsive to family and obviously near the end. Only myself and John's son-in-law were in the house. The rest of the family kept their vigil at their own houses, waiting for my call.

 

All of a sudden, John opened his eyes and said "Come on Pepper", and died.

 

While not unexpected, the death was so quick and strange, we were kind of stunned². Not 2 minutes later, John's daughter telephoned to tell us Pepper had died.

 

上个月，教会办的招待所里一位91岁的病人找我去看病。老约翰患有严重的充血性心力衰竭，已经到了弥留之际。他是单身，妻子两年前去世了。他已经有很长一段时间不能照顾他的狗“佩佩”了，这只狗今年16岁（相当于人112岁），很小，长得像老鼠一样，动不动就叫个没完。几个星期前，佩佩给带到了十英里以外，老约翰的女儿不得不这样做，因为只有那样她才能在家里照顾这只狗。

 

拒绝了前一位医生的建议后，老约翰找我去照料他。那位医生让他离开医院回家去，舒舒服服地过完最后的时间。

 

此时，他已经昏迷了，在全家人的呼唤之下也没有任何反应，毫无疑问生命即将走到尽头。屋子里只有我和他的女婿在，其他人都在自己各自的房间内等候我的通知，谁也没有睡觉。

 

突然，老约翰睁开眼，说道，“来吧，佩佩”，随后就死去了。

 

这一切出乎我们的意料，死亡来得如此的迅速而且奇怪，我们都有点不知所措。还不到两分钟，老约翰的女儿打电话来告诉我们，佩佩刚才死了。

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