Nurses or Doctors

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Soutane

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I apologise if I’m putting this request in the wrong section but I would like to speak to someone who has medical background who knows something about the dying process and who is a person of faith.It concerns something that happened at my Dad’s death bed and I yearn for an answer.Thank you.
 
My Father was nominally a protestant but in reality more probably an agnostic.He suffered a stroke and was hospitalised and dying.He was a good man who married a devout Catholic my mother and all four of his sons were raised in the Church,were altarboys etc.He had offered to convert for my Mother’s sake but she would not permit him to do so unless he truly believed and had a true conversion.Well,he never did-I think.
My Mother and his sons prayed for his conversion for 40+ years.My Mother placed the green scapular under his side of the mattress etc;the whole Catholic ball of wax…and nothing.
As my Dad lay dying and uncommunicative my brothers,mother and aunt visited and prayed.We never left him alone.My brother Rob and I would sleep in his hospital room in chairs night after night.
Finally he began panting and breathing shallowly and rapidly which his wonderful nurses described as “the last breaths”.It was approximately 2AM and all of us surrounded his bed praying.It occured to me that my father had always described himself jokingly as the best Catholic in the room when his sons’ behaviour was in question.I asked the nurse to call a priest but she balked as he was not Catholic-at my insistance she did so and a weary priest was there within the half hour.He advised me that he could not give my Dad the “last rites”,but that he would pray the prayers for"the dying and the dead".We all prayed with the priest holding hands and completely encircling the bed.It was unbelievably dramatic and my brother described it like being a scene from a movie.
At the instant of the conclusion of the prayers my father gave a huge sigh and we thought he had finally died.We then noticed that he was sleeping peacefully and that his respiration was absolutely normal.As we were filing out ,the kind nurses who were in tears assumed that he had died.I replied no and that our Dad was sleeping and breathing peacefully.They both had looks of disbelief on their faces and said that that was impossible as he was taking "the last breaths"They went into his room and confirmed my assertion.I believe that my Dad made a spiritual deathbed conversion and that the presence of the priest and our prayers relieved him greatly and that the return to peaceful breathing was a sign to us of what had happened.He did die the next day but that was so much easier to take.
What I am asking about are the"last breaths"The rapid shallow panting which is I assume part of the dying process-can this breathing return to normal?
 
I worked for a short time in a hospital but did not have any of the experiences you write about. I have talked to a nurse that was keeping a book on the near-death experiences but she seems not to have anything you described.
Anyway, we live to be in the service of our Lord. By being alive, we are always called to do His will. You conclude that his being alive after the shortness of breath was for him, but I can say that it could have been for you. His purpose for a second-chance could have been for your faith and your family’s. God grants us what we need even though we don’t always know what it is.
Please see this experience as a gift to the family that they could be together in faith and prayer and be with him in a holy moment.

mdcpensive1
 
mdcpensive1 said:
I worked for a short time in a hospital but did not have any of the experiences you write about. I have talked to a nurse that was keeping a book on the near-death experiences but she seems not to have anything you described.
Anyway, we live to be in the service of our Lord. By being alive, we are always called to do His will. You conclude that his being alive after the shortness of breath was for him, but I can say that it could have been for you. His purpose for a second-chance could have been for your faith and your family’s. God grants us what we need even though we don’t always know what it is.
Please see this experience as a gift to the family that they could be together in faith and prayer and be with him in a holy moment.

mdcpensive1
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Thank you for your kindness.
 
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