A Hospice Nurse Answers Taboo Questions About Death

5.

“Do you lose control of your bodily fluids immediately?”

Hospice Nurse Julie: Not everyone at the end of life will lose control of their body fluids. It’s not like everyone will suddenly urinate and defecate because they have died. However, I would say at the end of life in the actively dying phase, everyone will be incontinent. So you will need someone to change you and care for you if you do die the natural, gradual way. Not everyone does — if you die, suddenly, that likely won’t happen. But if you’re dying a gradual, slow, peaceful, comfortable death, you do get to a place where you are unconscious, and someone has to change you because you still are urinating and having bowel movements. Maybe not as often as you normally would, but you still have them. 

However, when someone dies, I think there is a little bit of a misconception that the second they die, they urinate and defecate. That’s just not true. They can at times, and that’s because all of the sphincters in our bodies, which keep fluids and waste in until it’s ready, will loosen and relax and then let go of bodily fluids, hence why people can have fluid come out of their mouth. They can have a bowel movement; they can urinate. That can happen immediately upon death, but it doesn’t always happen. It just depends.