Predicting the death of a patient, even an elderly, demented one, is an inexact science, even for a doctor with decades of medical experience. But a cat in a Providence, Rhode Island, nursing home, an animal shelter refugee named Oscar, seems to have a sixth sense about when residents in the home's advanced dementia unit are about to pass away. And his actions can sometimes help alert the staff to notify family members in time for them to get to the nursing home to tell their loved ones goodbye.
預測病人的死亡，即使是老人痴呆症患者，是門不夠嚴謹精確的科學，即使有幾十年醫療經驗的醫生亦然。但美國羅德島普洛維登斯一家養老院有隻叫奧斯卡的貓，原是動物收容所的流浪貓，牠似乎有「第六感」，可預知院中重症痴呆病患何時即將離世。牠的舉動有時可幫助提醒工作人員，及時通知家屬趕到養老院和親人告別。
Dr. David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring, sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong in their predictions over which patients were close to death.
多薩博士，一個老年醫學專家兼布朗大學助理教授說，5年來的紀錄顯示，奧斯卡很少犯錯，有時反倒以行動證明，這家新英格蘭養老院醫務人員在預測哪些患者瀕臨死亡上有誤。
The cat, now five and generally unsociable, was adopted as a kitten at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, which specializes in caring for people with severe dementia. When Oscar was about six months old the staff noticed that he would curl up to sleep with patients who were about to die. If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in. So far he has accurately predicted about 50 deaths.
這隻貓現年5歲，通常獨來獨往，不善交際。是院方到普洛維登斯護理康復中心「斯蒂爾之家」領養的，這家養老院專責照顧重症癡呆病患。奧斯卡約6個月大時，工作人員注意到，牠會蜷伏在瀕死病患身旁睡覺。如果把牠關在垂死病人門外，奧斯卡會不斷抓門想要進去。牠迄今已準確預測約 50人死亡。
Dosa recounts one instance when staffs were convinced of the imminent death of one patient but Oscar refused to sit with that person, choosing instead to be on the bed of another patient in another room. Oscar proved to be right. The person he sat with died first, taking staff on the ward by surprise. Dosa noted that the nursing home keeps five other cats, but none of the others have ever displayed a similar ability.
多薩舉個實例，有一次工作人員相信有位病患即將死亡，但奧斯卡拒絕坐在他身旁，反而跳到另一間病房的另一位病人床上。結果證明奧斯卡是對的，躺在牠身旁那個病患先死，連病房醫護人員都感到意外。多薩說，養老院另外養了5隻貓，但牠們均未展現類似的能力。
Dosa said there is no scientific evidence to explain Oscar's abilities, but he thinks the cat might be responding to a pheromone or smell that humans simply don't recognize. He said his main interest was not to delve further into Oscar's abilities but to use Oscar as a vehicle to tell about terminal illness, which is his main area of work.
多薩說，沒有任何科學證據足以說明奧斯卡的超能力，但他認為貓可能會對人類根本無法察覺的費洛蒙或氣味作出反應。他的本意不在深入探討奧斯卡的超能力，而是試圖利用奧斯卡作為了解絕症的媒介，這也是他主要的工作領域。
When doctors and staff realized that Oscar could sense when someone was going to die, the feline was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death. But Dr. Dosa, who broke the news of Oscar's abilities in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, said he never intended to make Oscar sound creepy or his arrival at a bedside to be viewed negatively.
當醫生和工作人員發現，奧斯卡能預知有人將死亡時，這隻貓被醜化成毛茸茸的死神，或四條腿的死亡天使。但多薩博士2007年在《新英格蘭醫學期刊》發表論文，披露奧斯卡有超能力的新聞時強調，他無意使奧斯卡變成令人毛骨悚然的怪物，或因此負面看待牠守在死者床邊的舉動。
Dosa said he hopes his newly released book, “Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat” will put the cat in a more favorable light as well as providing a book to help people whose loved ones are terminally ill.
多薩說，他希望他新近出版的著作，《和奧斯卡一起巡視病房：一隻天賦異稟的平凡貓》，可以為這隻貓正名，同時提供一本書，幫助那些絕症患者的親友。
“I wanted to write a book that would go beyond Oscar's peculiarities, to tell why he is important to family members and caregivers who have been with him at the end of a life.” Dosa said Oscar's story is fascinating on many levels. “There is a lot to tell about what Oscar does, but there is a lot to tell on the human level of what family members go through at the end of life when they are dealing with a loved one in a nursing home or with advanced dementia,” he said.
「我想寫一本書，不只著墨於奧斯卡的特殊能力，我想告訴大家，為什麼牠對伴隨瀕死病患的家屬和醫護人員很重要。」多薩說，奧斯卡的故事在很多層面上都很有意義。「奧斯卡的本事真是數不勝數，但在人的方面，也有很多故事可說，像家屬在面對療養院或重症痴呆的親人即將死亡時的心路歷程。」他說。
“Perhaps the book is a little more approachable because there is a cat in it. We really know so little about nursing homes, and this tries to get rid of this myth that they are horrid factories where people go to die.”
「也許因為這本書主角是貓，而更平易近人一點，但我們對養老院所知有限。本書試圖走出認定養老院只是讓人準備死亡的恐怖廠房的迷思。」
In his book, Dosa offers no solid scientific explanation for Oscar's behaviour. He suggests Oscar is able - like dogs, which can reportedly smell cancer - to detect ketones, the distinctly-odoured biochemicals given off by dying cells.
在他書中，多薩並未對奧斯卡的行為提出扎實可信的科學解釋。他暗示，奧斯卡可能像狗一樣，據說狗可以聞出癌症患者死亡細胞散發的明顯生化物質酮的味道。
Another possibility: “I think he is following the patterning behavior of the staff,” says Joan Teno, MD, professor of Brown University, Providence, who also cares for Steere House residents. “This is an excellent nursing home. If a dying person is alone, the staff will actually go in so the patient is not alone. They will hold a vigil.” Oscar has seen that pattern repeated many times, and may be mimicking it. “Animals are intuitive,” she says. “We don't give them enough credit.”
另一種可能性：「我認為牠只是模仿工作人員的行為模式，」瓊安．特諾醫學博士兼布朗大學教授說，他也是斯蒂爾之家的醫護人員。「這是一所很好的養老院，如果一個垂死患者孤伶伶的，工作人員會去守著他，使他不至於太孤單。他們會徹夜不眠地臨終守護。」奧斯卡多次看到這種模式，牠可能有樣學樣。「動物憑直覺行動，」她說，「我們未能充分肯定牠們的貢獻。」
Far from recoiling from Oscar's presence, now they know its significance, relatives and friends of patients have been comforted and sometimes praised the cat in newspaper death notices and eulogies. As Oscar's reputation grew, so did appreciation for his mission. “The largest hospice organization in the state presented him with a certificate acknowledging his work,”Dosa says.
現在他們再也不會對奧斯卡大駕光臨退避三舍，他們知道這其中的意義。病患親友也因此得到安慰，有時報上的悼詞和訃聞還會順帶讚揚這隻貓。隨著奧斯卡名氣愈來愈大，愈來愈多人感謝牠的使命感。「美國最大的臨終關懷機構還頒發證書，承認牠的貢獻，」多薩說。
This is Oscar's file photo taken July 23, 2007.
圖為奧斯卡2007年7月23日所攝的檔案照。
（美聯社）