We know that when cells are in starvation states or in their final stages, they release ketones, which are sweet-smelling chemicals.

What makes the most sense to me is he’s perceiving a smell or a pheromone. Have you heard of a satisfactory explanation why Oscar does this?Ī. We’ve estimated that it’s over 60 at this point.

In his five years living at Steere House, has he missed a death?Ī. We were seeing a cat that was providing families with a great deal of distraction-and comfort.

But you saw Oscar’s services in a different light?Ī. It was geared toward “if Oscar’s on your bed, you’re dead.” He was depicted as the grim reaper of cats. When I wrote the essay on Oscar, there was a fair amount of publicity. I wanted to get a sense of what the families thought about having this cat sit at the bedside while their loved ones passed on. So what motivated you to investigate the Oscar effect?Ī. I had had some bad experiences with cats growing up and that colored my perception of them and their importance. Before you met Oscar, were you a cat person?Ī. (Read an excerpt from Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat) He spoke with the AARP Bulletin about it. He relays what he found out in his new book, Making Rounds With Oscar. The piece made international headlines-and propelled Oscar into unusual stardom.ĭosa then launched his own personal investigation to learn about the effect Oscar had on the people around him-namely the patient’s families. David Dosa, M.D., a Steere House geriatrician who treats the dementia patients and researches the illness at Brown University, wrote an essay about Oscar for the New England Journal of Medicine. They took Oscar’s visits as a cue to notify the family and make final preparations. The nursing home employees soon began to realize he was the first “staffer” to know a patient was about to die. He’d take up a vigil on the beds, waiting quietly until the patient had passed away. But shortly before his first birthday, he began visiting patients during their final hours. Oscar was adopted by the nursing home when he was a kitten and passed his first year rather uneventfully, playing with fellow feline adoptee, Maya, or entertaining himself out of the public eye. Nothing appears odd about the wing, until you get to know one of the house pets: a sweet-faced gray and white tabby named Oscar. On the third floor, the Safe Haven Advanced Care unit has 41 rooms reserved for patients who have dementia. The spacious three-story facility houses a nursing home and rehabilitation center in downtown Providence, R.I., right off Interstate 95. From the outside, Steere House looks normal enough.

David dosa oscar