Last month， I had a 91 year old patient， “old John”， who was dying of CHF1. His wife had died two years ago， so he was alone. He had long since given up being able to care for his pet dog “Pepper”， a small， rat looking， yappy2 dog who was 16 （112 in dog years） herself. Pepper had to be taken away a few weeks ago so she could be taken care of by Johns daughter， who lived 10 miles away.

I was called in to see John after he had refused the advice from his last doctor who had discharged3 John from the hospital to go home and be comfortable for his last few hours.

By this point， John was comatose4， non responsive5 to family and clearly near the end. Only myself and Johns son in law were in the house. The rest of the family kept their vigil6 at their own houses， waiting for my call.

All of a sudden， John opened his eyes and said， “Come on， Pepper”， and died.

While not unexpected， the death was so quick and strange. We all lost our head. Not two minutes later， Johns daughter telephoned to tell us Pepper had died.

上個月，一位91歲的病人找我去看病。老約翰患有嚴(yán)重的充血性心力衰竭，已經(jīng)到了彌留之際。他的妻子兩年前去世了，因此他是獨居。他已經(jīng)有很長一段時間不能照顧他的狗“佩佩”了。這只狗今年16歲（相當(dāng)于人的112歲），很小，長得像老鼠一樣，動不動就叫個沒完。幾個星期前，佩佩給帶到了十英里以外，老約翰的女兒不得不這樣做，因為只有那樣她才能在家里照顧這只狗。

拒絕了前一位醫(yī)生的建議后，我被叫去照料他。那位醫(yī)生讓他離開醫(yī)院回家去，舒舒服服地過完最后的時間。

此時，他已經(jīng)昏迷了，在全家人的呼喚之下也沒有任何反應(yīng)，毫無疑問他的生命即將走到盡頭。屋子里只有我和他的女婿在，其他人都在自己各自的房間內(nèi)等候我的通知，誰也沒有睡覺。

突然，老約翰睜開眼，說道：“來吧，佩佩”，隨后就去世了。

這一切出乎我們的意料，死亡來得如此的迅速而且奇怪，我們都有點不知所措。不到兩分鐘之后，老約翰的女兒打電話來告訴我們，佩佩剛才死了。