Did You Know?

When a person dies, his sense of hearing is the last to go.

Death is inevitable and its timing is unknown. Unfortunately we seize on the latter as an excuse to put off facing death directly. Yet the longer we postpone facing death, the more we fear it.
Dr Katherine Clark is a staff specialist in palliative care at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. She knows all about the common symptoms experienced by people on their deathbed. "Of course, each person's death is unique," she says. "So you might see only some of these symptoms or none of them."

According to Clark, a person in the last stages of life will typically sleep more. Even so, loved ones are encouraged to keep talking to them. "There's research based on electroencephalograms (EEGs) of people's brain waves that indicates hearing is the last sense to go." Based on this people believe that until the very bitter end you are still capable of hearing everything that is going on around you, which is why people take comfort in talking to their loved one until the monitor finally gives in to the everlasting beep.
The theory that the last sense to leave you is sound is often times backed up by a study in which electroencephalograms (EEGS) of peoples brain waves were looked at as they were dying and proved that it was more than likely that the last sense a person would retain would be that of sound. However, upon some very intense research, no such study could actually be found. Since this turned out to be a dead end (pun intended) the closest thing that could verify this theory was the information given to people by hospice workers.

Source: ABC Science