Family support – Quality Senior Home Care

Posted by: matthew

Marisol Trejo, Administrator of Above and Beyond Home Health Care in Nampa, Idaho, shares the story of helping a client and her family through the last months of her husbands life.

In February of 2007 we received a phone call from a frantic wife stating that her husband was very ill and she did not know what to do.   She explained to me her son had just got back from Iraq and had suffered a tragic leg injury; The outlook was that they were going to perform a double amputation.  She sobbed as she explained she had relied upon her son to be her strength.  We rushed to meet with her and her husband; When we arrived we found that he had been diagnosed with cancer just three days prior.

We began providing senior in home care for her husband seven days a week.  We located the most loving, patient caregiver to place in the home.  On the second week while performing a routine “Care Call” the wife asked us if it would be okay if she gave the caregiver a gift in the form of a card.  The caregiver brought the card in exemplifying the statement, “Thank you so much for being my strength over the past few days.  Also, many thanks to that nice girl who came out to help clean the mess my husband was in.”  This nice girl happened to be our fantastic human resources director.

We had introduced hospice to the husband and wife, but they both were not in any position to entertain the slightest idea of this type of care.  Throughout the months we had again approached the idea of hospice with no change.  During the fifth month we again introduced hospice and the family was receptive.  The family chose a hospice agency at the recommendation of a family member, as he had a long-standing relationship with that particular agency.

Five months had come and gone, and the husband grew weaker and weaker.  The wife had called the office to increase the number of hours for the caregiver to work.  Soon we were working 24-hour shifts.  We worked long hours with this family for three weeks when family had been called in from out of town.  As the family began to spend more time with their ill father our hours working with the family decreased (24 hours to 12 hours to 6 hours to 4 hours to 0 hours to PRN).

It was late on a Saturday night when we received a phone call the from wife.  She explained as she was crying, there was no family at the home and her husband was dying and she did not know what to do.  She was breathing heavily when she managed to ask the on-call person to contact their Hospice nurse.

At this point in time, the caregiver who had been working with this family for the past few months had gone over to the home and spent the last 12 hours with this family.  The caregiver volunteered her time to bring peace and comfort to the family.

Two weeks after the husband’s death the wife called the office trying to locate the caregiver.  She was attempting to schedule a lunch date with the caregiver.  They met and the wife had presented a plaque to the caregiver stating, “Thank you for being my strength.  Thank you for being my friend.  It was you who brought me peace when my world was coming to an end.”