Max
12-28-2004, 06:35 PM
Death proves oblivious to Christmas
Emma Marris
It seems that cancer patients cannot 'hold on' for the holidays.
The idea that loved ones hold on until after the holidays may be down to selective memory.
© Punchstock
A widespread belief that dying people are able to postpone death until after important dates is simply not true, according to a US study of cancer patients.
Almost everyone knows a story of someone who, through sheer willpower, held grimly on to life until a certain date. And small studies of specific populations seemed to bear the idea out.
But when Donn Young, a cancer researcher at Ohio State University in Columbus took a call just before Christmas last year from a reporter writing a story about cancer patients "defying science", he wasn't convinced.
So he embarked on a study of more than 300,000 Ohioans who died of cancer between 1989 and 2000, using the Ohio mortality database. Using Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the patient's birthday as the three "special dates", Young looked for a dip in deaths the week before, with a corresponding peak in the week after.
He reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association that he didn't see any effect at all1. "Death never takes a holiday," he says.
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041220/full/041220-9.html
http://stores.ebay.com/MAKSYM-Variety-Store
Emma Marris
It seems that cancer patients cannot 'hold on' for the holidays.
The idea that loved ones hold on until after the holidays may be down to selective memory.
© Punchstock
A widespread belief that dying people are able to postpone death until after important dates is simply not true, according to a US study of cancer patients.
Almost everyone knows a story of someone who, through sheer willpower, held grimly on to life until a certain date. And small studies of specific populations seemed to bear the idea out.
But when Donn Young, a cancer researcher at Ohio State University in Columbus took a call just before Christmas last year from a reporter writing a story about cancer patients "defying science", he wasn't convinced.
So he embarked on a study of more than 300,000 Ohioans who died of cancer between 1989 and 2000, using the Ohio mortality database. Using Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the patient's birthday as the three "special dates", Young looked for a dip in deaths the week before, with a corresponding peak in the week after.
He reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association that he didn't see any effect at all1. "Death never takes a holiday," he says.
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041220/full/041220-9.html
http://stores.ebay.com/MAKSYM-Variety-Store