4 Common Ways to Die by Dr. Yvonne McMaster

"Well, there are four ways people tend to die," she repeats. She draws an L-graph on a napkin, labeling the tall axis "health" and the bottom axis "time."

"The first is very sudden. This might happen, say, in the case of a heart attack or a car crash," she draws a line that runs along at full health, before falling suddenly down to zero.

With any kind of accidental death, you would need a prior contract with another soul/person to facilitate, this can only happen if there is a spiritual contract prior in agreement to be the perpetrator/murderer, and this spiritual work must be reciprocated, as such it carries a much lowerpercentage of death.

"But not many people die this way," Yvonne explains. "We're so healthy, you see, that our deaths tend to be more drawn out. The vast majority die in one of these three other ways."

She draws the next three graphs.

The second looks like a plateau followed by a steep slope down. This is what it looks like if you have a disease like advanced or untreated cancer: You're quite healthy for quite a while, experiencing only a gentle decline, before the disease rapidly wears you down. According to the geriatrician Joanne Lynn, who developed these graphs, about 20 percent of people die this way and in Yvonne's words, "all in all, it's not a bad way to go, especially if you have good palliative care."

The third is a more gradual slope down, marked by several deep potholes. This symbolizes a chronic condition that causes nasty episodes over time, which often require hospitalization, that you only partially recover from. This is typical of diseases like organ failure, chronic heart failure, emphysema, and many others. Death may come during one of the dips, if treatment fails. About 25 percent of people go this way.

And forth; a wonky winding down toward death, as the body wears down from niggling conditions built up over time. As your health becomes more and more frail, dying often follows a physiological challenge that would've been quite minor in earlier life, such as influenza, infection, or a broken bone. An illness like dementia can also follow this path.

"The last graph is by far the most common, as with the advanced medical means" Yvonne explains. "But, of course, you're prone to experience some combination of them all. Knowing which trajectory someone is on can help you care for them better. It helps you make better decisions."

1. = <10%
2. = 20%
3. = 25%
4. = 45%
5. = <0.00001% (Transcendental Death)

Tags: death