The Special Bond between Parent and Child

The Special Bond Between Parent and Child I remember a patient of mine who lost her youngest son.

My patient’s son had been through a difficult divorce several years before his unexpected death, but had been doing well. He had completed his degree in physical therapy and had a job at a rehabilitation center that he loved and a group of close friends. When he didn’t show up for work on Monday, his coworkers went to check on him and found that he had died sometime over the weekend. There was no apparent cause of death, and authorities were uncertain about when it had happened. No one had seen him or heard from him since Friday evening, when he had been out with his friends.

My patient claimed that she knew exactly when her son had died. She had suddenly become violently ill during her Sunday morning church service, and then her symptoms just disappeared as suddenly as they had come on. As a single parent, she was close to her children and thought perhaps her daughter, who was expecting her first child at any time, must have gone into labor. When she learned of her son’s death, however, she knew right away that her sudden illness had come on at the time of his death.

After meeting that patient, I asked other parents who had experienced an unexpected death of one of their children whether they’d had any unusual experiences at the time of their child’s death. I have not encountered any other cases. There is little in the literature about this occurrence, but I think it warrants further study.

Over the years, scientists and child development specialists have discovered that the bond between parent and child is one of the strongest connections in nature. There have been documented cases of telecommunication between mothers and children and reports that mothers just have a “knowing” when their child is in trouble.

Another interesting finding is that scientists have discovered children’s cells living in their mother’s brain. The term microchimerism describes