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While most people have heard the term hospice before, there can be confusion about what hospice care really is and what it isn’t. Suzanne Karefa-Johnson, MD, a hospice physician at Florida Hospital, provides information and insight about what hospice can do for patients at the end of their lives.
What is hospice? What isn't hospice?
Hospice isn’t a place, but rather is a way of caring that brings comfort to people with a life-limiting illness. The focus is on enhancing a patient’s quality of life. Each patient and his or her caregivers receive individualized care that meets their unique physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Hospice care focuses on caring, not curing, and neither hastens nor prolongs the dying process.
Featured
Hospice: 10 Myths and Facts About End of Life Care
Source:
Florida Hospital
Date:
October 17, 2016
Hospice: 10 Myths and Facts About End of Life Care
Featured
How Do I Know When My Loved One Needs Hospice or Palliative Care?
Source:
Florida Hospital
Date:
September 29, 2016
When a loved one has a serious illness, it’s understandable that you want to find the right care. There can be confusion about two similar care approaches: hospice care and palliative care. We asked Suzanne Karefa-Johnson, MD, a hospice doctor at Florida Hospital, to explain the difference between hospice and palliative care.
Each child in Hospice of the Comforter’s Children’s Loss Program receives a “sadness buddy,” a small stuffed animal accompanied by the above poem. These special services are available to all children in need, children like Tommy…
When Aissa Ayala De Ramirez accompanied her mother to a medical appointment in 2007, the Orlando resident received unexpected news. Her mother, Teresa, had leukemia and less than a year to live.
Faced with overwhelming decisions, Aissa followed the physician’s recommendation and turned to Hospice of the Comforter, part of Florida Hospital, for care.
Faith Broadnax yanked out her breathing tube.
If the “skinny white woman” with the camera — as the headstrong 80-year-old referred to hospice volunteer Maria McKenna — insisted on shooting video of her singing a hymn, she wasn’t going to be seen praising Jesus with a plastic hose up her nose.
“This is your show,” McKenna said, waiting patiently, lens focused on Broadnax.
When finished, the end-of-life video, produced by Hospice of the Comforter, will recount the colorful life and times of Broadnax, the first black president of Central Florida’s restaurant association and a cook whose made-from-scratch Southern meals delighted Orlando foodies at her short-lived restaurant, Hey Faith’s Cookin’!
Florida Hospital Celebrates a New Day at Hospice of the Comforter
Source:
Florida Hospital
Date:
July 23, 2014
When Aissa Ayala De Ramirez turned to Hospice of the Comforter in 2007 for her mother’s care, she had no idea what to expect. To Aissa’s surprise, a social worker, doctor and two nurses visited the family’s home the same afternoon. Today, Aissa’s journey continues with her father. The support from Hospice of the Comforter has proved invaluable.
Members of a hospice team presented a case of a Muslim patient, whose family was keeping him from knowledge of his terminal status. The patient was asking, “why am I getting weaker and no one is telling me anything?” The case involved the ethical principles of the autonomy of the family and the veracity of the hospice team. The family asked hospice staff not to let him know that he was dying. The team was informed that the family wanted their father to ask for the forgiveness of God before he knows that he is dying. According to their understanding of Muslim teaching a person can only be forgiven if one seeks forgiveness before knowing about the imminence of death.
Case of Patient without Family and with HIV
Source:
Hospice of the Comforter
Date:
February 12, 2013
Two hospice social workers presented the case of a patient with a recorded history of HIV disease, bipolar disorder and other medical issues. His hospice diagnosis is end stage HIV. He has no family, and upon admission into hospice was no longer able to adequately care for himself, as he was living alone. The case presenters requested that the ethics committee reflect on this case in light of questions of his autonomy and the pursuit of his “best interests” for end-of-life care and appropriate placement.
What is it like to watch your wife of 30 years die? Ben McMahan experienced this heartbreak, and shared his story with more than 450 business leaders and community members at the Gift of Hope Luncheon on Tuesday, May 22, held at the Altamonte Hilton in Altamonte Springs, Fla., hosted by Hospice of the Comforter Foundation.
