Table 1.

Comparison of the Course and Duration of Three Death Trajectories

	Expected death trajectory	Mixed death trajectory	Unexpected death trajectory
Course	Steep progressive decline, often measured in clinical benchmarks	Initial course of treatment/stability followed by sharp demarcation of steep terminal decline	Slow decline marked by exacerbations from which recovery never reaches former level of health
Duration of terminal phase	Prolonged from the point of diagnosis	Typically short	Extremely short