Hospice offers four levels of care, as defined by Medicare, to meet the varying needs of patients and their families. The four levels of hospice include routine home care, continuous home care, general inpatient care, and respite care.
Q. What is the function and role of hospice care?
Hospice care is a special kind of care that focuses on the quality of life for people and their caregivers who are experiencing an advanced, life-limiting illness. Hospice care provides compassionate care for people in the last phases of incurable disease so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible.
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Q. What exactly does Hospice do?
Hospice care focuses on the care, comfort, and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life. At some point, it may not be possible to cure a serious illness, or a patient may choose not to undergo certain treatments. Hospice is designed for this situation.
Q. What is the Lazarus reflex?
The Lazarus sign or Lazarus reflex is a reflex movement in brain-dead or brainstem failure patients, which causes them to briefly raise their arms and drop them crossed on their chests (in a position similar to some Egyptian mummies).
Q. Why do people cross arms when dying?
The reflex causes the dead to sit up, briefly raise their arms and drop them, crossed, onto their chests. It happens because while most reflexes are mediated by the brain, some are overseen by “reflex arcs”, which travel through the spine instead.
Q. What is the longest time someone died and came back to life?
Record. Velma Thomas, 59, of Nitro, West Virginia, USA holds the record time for recovering from clinical death. In May 2008, Thomas went into cardiac arrest at her home. Medics were able to establish a faint pulse after eight minutes of CPR.
Q. How long can someone stay dead before being revived?
Blood circulation can be stopped in the entire body below the heart for at least 30 minutes, with injury to the spinal cord being a limiting factor. Detached limbs may be successfully reattached after 6 hours of no blood circulation at warm temperatures. Bone, tendon, and skin can survive as long as 8 to 12 hours.
