Credit unknown
Too often we practitioners draw from a pool of similar patients and are not able to experience the vast information potentially read from pulses. Even more infrequent is the pulse experienced at the end of life when many are in hospitals hooked up to machines that may interfere with natural death.
I was fortunate to be able to listen to my father’s pulse as he passed away at home and I thought you might find it interesting.
My dad was an 89 year old man in otherwise good health who had leaky heart valves. He had chosen not to get them repaired as it usually involves some mental impairment and he was teaching graduate school classes until last year. So the ability of his heart to support his activities was substantially reduced as the valves were unable to push blood through the heart.
During his last day his pulse was very rapid as his heart was compensating for the low force. Qi could not command blood. The beat started strong then fizzled out as the weak valves could not push the blood. It was regularly irregular but the “fizzle” took a third to a half of the beat. He was so hot he required fanning, but his hands and feet were icy cold. This would be what we call false heat caused by the stagnation of blood due to low qi/ force. The force of the pulse was low but curiously his Kidney pulses were not inordinately weak compared to the others.
As he died his breathing was reduced and it was hard to find what had become a feeble pulse. The pulse got deeper and deeper until it was hidden. His forehead was still hot as was his vertex but the warm area moved up and the cold overtook him. The pulse diminished and he peacefully died.