LACRIMA MORTIS: THE TEAR OF DEATH

After hearing an expert, Dr. John Lerma Bord Certified in Hospice and Pallative Care discuss his experiences.I wanted to know more about lacrima mortis'The Tear Of Death"

Dr.Lwema described his work with terminally ill patients and their pre-death experiences. Patients often fear the physical side of death, such as from suffocation from too much fluid accumulating in their body, yet this can be controlled via drugs such as morphine, he noted. Matthew, a blind nine-year-old with a terminal illness was one of his most remarkable patients. The boy said he was in contact with three angels, and was able to accurately describe what people were wearing even though his eyes had been surgically removed.

Often patients who are about to die will exhibit a single tear (" lacrima mortis"), which Lerma views as a kind of final cleansing. Dying people will also speak about going home or taking a train/plane. They aren't talking about returning to their house or ordinary public transportation. Rather, this is generally a reference to their return to the other side, with passengers on the train being other deceased individuals, he explained.

This article is interesting
http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf094/sf094b06.htm LACRIMA MORTIS: THE TEAR OF DEATH

"It must be a heart-wrenching experience to see a single tear roll down the cheek of a person at the moment of his or her death. I. Lichter, medical director of the Te Omanga Hospice, in New Zealand, wondered how often this phenomenon occurred and why. Working with the Hospice nursing staff, Lichter followed 100 patients nearing death.

"The results showed 14 patients shed a final tear at the time of death, and a further 13 within the last 10 hours of life.

"In 21 of the 27 cases, the dying person was unconscious at the time of the last tear. And in all but one case the tear was shed by patients whose death was expected rather than sudden."

Lichter and colleagues wondered if the death-bed tears were emotional in origin or perhaps caused by a reflex action. Notes made by the nursing staff were inconclusive on this matter. Lichter thought of chemically analyzing some of the last tears, because emotional tears have a different chemical composition from those produced by irritation. Unfortunately, a single tear was insufficent for the analysis."

(Morrison, Alastair; "The Mystery of the Death-Bed Tear," Wellington Dominion, August 11, 1993. Cr. P. Hassall)