Death Vigils: Doing Them Right

Posted on February 17, 2020 by Bagozzi Twins Funeral Home under blog, funeral home
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Before funerals at funeral homes in Syracuse, NY, we may find that we are doing death vigils for our loved ones as they die. They may be coherent and able to converse or they may have entered the active dying phase and are not awake or communicative at all.

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Our job is to make sure our loved ones are comfortable. This is not just about their physical comfort, although that is incredibly important, but also about their mental and emotional comfort. There are several things that we should make sure we do when we’re sitting in a death vigil with our loved ones.

When our loved ones are close to death, we should first make sure to get hospice care, which can help guide the process and can provide the medications our loved ones need to be physically comfortable. They can also help us provide physical, mental, and emotional comfort.

Pain management is paramount as a loved one is dying. As the body begins to shut down in earnest, there will be muscle spasms and other pains that can make our loved ones very uncomfortable and that can make it hard for them to settle down and rest easily. When we see that, medication for pain should be administered, according to the instructions of the hospice staff.

Another sign of pain can be a high temperature, which can lead to seizures or severe muscle cramps. Pain medication and a fever reducer can alleviate these sources of pain.

Dehydration may also be a source of pain when a loved one is dying. They have probably already stopped eating or drinking much in the days or weeks before, so their body is getting severely dehydrated. The physical symptoms of dehydration can be extremely painful, so adequate pain management to ease them is a necessity.

When we’re sitting in a death vigil for a loved one, we can also provide physical comfort for them.

One way we can do this is by keeping their mouth moist. During the active phase of dying, our loved one will primarily breathe with their mouth open. This can lead to dry mouth, which can be quite uncomfortable. Hospice usually provides mouth swabs that you can wet and use to moisten your loved one’s mouth. If you don’t have a swab, you can use a moist cloth to keep your loved one’s mouth comfortable.

In addition to keeping our loved ones comfortable by keeping their mouths moist, we can also keep their lips, which will dry out, comfortable by applying a non-waxed based lip balm on their lips on a regular basis.

Another way to provide physical comfort to our loved ones is by washing them while we’re sitting vigil. Using a washcloth, we can gently wash them with warm water and then apply a gentle lotion to their face, legs, feet, hands, and arms. Not only does this make them feel better, but the sensation of touch can give them great relief.

We can provide our loved ones with emotional and mental comfort while we are sitting in the death vigil with them by providing them with a quiet and peaceful environment. There should be no loud talking, laughing, or other noises. If there is music they like, we can place it softly as a light background noise. Lights should be low or off.

Last, we should talk to our loved ones as we’re sitting with them while they die. Hearing, it is said, is the last sense to go. Even if our loved ones don’t respond, we should talk with them about how much we love them and what they mean to us. We can read their favorite things to them. We can even sing their favorite songs. But we should stay engaged.

For more information about death vigils at funeral homes in Syracuse, NY, our compassionate and experienced team at Bagozzi Twins Funeral Home, Inc. is here to help you. You can visit our funeral home at 2601 Milton Ave., Solvay, NY 13209, or you can call us today at (315) 468-2431.

Bagozzi Twins Funeral Home

Serving families in Solvay, NY, the Greater Syracuse area, and all of Central New York for over 90 years, we are honored to have earned many awards for service excellence and customer satisfaction.

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