Why a person would want to feel like a human, or wouldn't want to feel like an animal, when they think they might die soon. Anyone else?

I used to take care of an old friend when he had pancreatitis and suffered a lot of pain from gallstones for a few months. When he started noticing pain, he went to the ER and stayed in the hospital for about a week. Although his symptoms were not completely gone, he didn’t want to stay there because he didn’t like the way he was treated by the nurses. He overheard two nurses say to each other that they wished the old patients died soon. He went back home to treat his symptoms himself with the help of friends. He was a medic once, so he believed he had the knowledge to take care of himself. However, since he got back home, his symptoms had gotten worse, and his blood sugar had skyrocketed. Soon, he couldn’t walk by himself, couldn’t sleep for days, and constantly endured excruciating pain. He didn’t want to go back to the hospital albeit the intense agony, lack of in-house medical equipment, and advices from friends. It was difficult to see his physical and mental abilities fading away.
During the most difficult days, he often put ice in his mouth, and replace them when they melted. Also, he started drinking chocolate milk, although he was well aware that milk would make his condition worse, considering he was having pancreatitis. When asked why, he said taking ice made him feel human because animals other than human couldn’t produce ice. The same reason went for drinking chocolate milk since only human mixed chocolate and milk together for consumption, he explained. Understanding that he wanted emotional comfort during stressful situation, I let him consume ice and chocolate milk. However, till today, I haven’t seen or heard anyone does what he did, so I wanted to know if anyone out there know similar stories or know any references to taking ice in mouth or drinking chocolate milk in the literature.

P.S.
Fortunately, one of his friends, who he admired, successfully convinced him to go to a different hospital where his friend worked. He stayed in that hospital for about a month and finally got much better.