Aug. 16, 2004 - 16:36 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Terminal Comfort

Found something good in the news today, something that is encouraging.

An article in today's Rocky Mountian News led me to google to find out when this thing became formal. 1980 it seems.

The Heart And Soul Of Comfort

by Bill Scanlon of the Rocky Mountain News. In part:

Hospice visits give CU med students lessons in caring for the dying

"For one day last week, a half-dozen medical students held dying babies, pushed wheelchairs, washed wrinkled feet, did the humble jobs that loved ones take for granted."

"I discovered how much of the care is in the family's hands," third year University Of Colorado medical student Brian Bagrosky said. "I got a glimpse of how much that involves and how much they endure."

"Bagrosky and his third-year classmates are the First CU medical students to spend a DAY at hospice as part of their rotations in internal medicine."

"The idea is to connect them with the hearts and souls of the families they'll be working with -- before they get their medical degrees. They listened to hearts that may have just a few more weeks to beat, asked people with kidney failure about the amount and color of their urine. It was at once humbling and enlightening, students said."

"Hospice is a method of care that allows people to die on their own terms, usually in their own homes, with the emphasis on relieving pain rather than intervening to slow the inevitable."

"CU partnered with Hospice of Metro Denver to give students a taste of what goes on after the patients go home from the hospital to die . . . . . Bagrosky was matched with nurse Lynda Brace for the day."

"Later he will talk with hospice specialist Dr. Dan Johnson . . . . At the debriefing , the students talked about pain, about how to take it away without taking away what it means for the patients to be truly alive. Johnson told them dying patients can adapt quickly to a great deal of medication and that only about 1 percent of hospice patients ever get truly addicted to the medications."

"Last stop is to see Sarah Haddop, who is 16 but the size of a 6-year old. She has some mental retardation and a host of medical problems. "She'll probably die of respiratory failure soon," Brace said."

"As Michael Haddop helps a few of the kids fly model airplanes, Bagrosky and Brace take Sarah on a slow walk down the sidewalk. The tiny girl with very little time holds hands with the medical student whose whole life is ahead of him. He is in no hurry to let go."

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From what little I remember from the things I read the idea of hospice is ancient, but from google I find out that The International Hospice Institute was founded in 1980 by Josefina Magno. From which the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine grew. I think that Hospice care has made great strides since then.

Before 1980 terminal patients were kept from pain killing drugs enough to give them relief from pain because the doctors feared the patients would become addicted. Probably the amount of pain-killers they would have purchased before hospice care would have got them in trouble, I wonder ? Back then patients were often subjected to ICU care and medical procedures that in essence were not useful in prolonging the life of a terminal patient. There apparently was no other choice.

Probably this long article moved me because of our son's last days spent in a hospice floor of a hospital.

It appears to me that after the last efforts at radiation failed to have the desired effect he went to the hospice floor.

I was amazed at how responsive and wonderfully the nurses tenderly cared for him. They were a big cut above ordinary nurses, who are darn good to begin with. The doctors made their appearances and did their thing, in a soft and respectful way, in and out in moments. But it was the nurses who spent more loving time with him. They were the ones who advised the doctor that he needed more pain relief, I think. They were the ones who related to the relatives in their gentle way, answering questions with honesty and kindness.

It did truly amaze me that CU and Hospice of Metro Denver began to do something about the situation. Last week, somewhere between the 9th and 14th of August, 2004 when finally the students got to spend just ONE day of their education visiting terminal folks, finding out about hospice care, that seems precious little to me.

I wonder if CU is now doing or has set up courses on Hospice care to train doctors-to-be who want to go into that career ? That is a field that needs more and more specialists as our population grows older and in more need of hospice care.

Makes my heart swell with joy to hear of things like hospice care. At least I know that dying people can have Terminal Comfort . . . . . . . .

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