Danish hospital grants patient's dying wish for a glass of wine and a cigarette

Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly the substance is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant which have been rolled into a small square of rice paper to create a small, round cylinder called a "cigarette". Smoking is primarily practiced as a route of administration for recreational drug use because the combustion of the dried plant leaves vaporizes and delivers active substances into the lungs where they are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and reach bodily tissue. In the case of cigarette smoking these substances are contained in a mixture of aerosol particles and gasses and include the pharmacologically active alkaloid nicotine; the vaporization creates heated aerosol and gas to form that allows inhalation and deep penetration into the lungs where absorption into the bloodstream of the active substances occurs. In some cultures, smoking is also carried out as a part of various rituals, where participants use it to help induce trance-like states that, they believe, can lead them to "spiritual enlightenment".

A hospital in Denmark has released a photograph of a patient fulfilling his dying wish - enjoying a cigarette and a glass of white wine while viewing the sunset from a hospital balcony.

Carsten Flemming Hansen, 75, was admitted to Aarhus University Hospital last week suffering from a ruptured aortic aneurysm.

Learning that he was too ill to undergo surgery and would die within days, if not hours, from internal bleeding, Mr Hansen told his nurse Rikke Kvist of his wish.

"That was when I remembered that we are on the same floor that has access to a balcony,"

 glass of wine and a cigarette

Although the hospital has a no-smoking policy, an exception was granted for Mr Hansen, whose bed was wheeled out to the balcony for him to have a final drink and smoke while admiring a beautiful sunset.

"It was a very cosy and relaxed atmosphere," said Ms Kvist. "Of course they were relatives also affected by the fact that he was going to die, and they were sad.

"But it was cosy and there was humour."