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The place where people are coming to die

Author: Catalina Cocolos

Translated by Brigadir

        From the Department of Palliative Care in Pascani hospital went home on their own feet only two patients. Only because they had the wrong diagnosis.

 Some patients know that they will leave this world with the last image of the "palliation room". Others, do not want to know. "I do not stay here long," said, with a decided voice, an old man called Nicolae, an incurable ill.

The department of palliative care was established in March 2007 and it is the only one of that kind in the romanian Moldavia where they take care of patients with incurable disease, in a terminal phase. Most patients who are admitted here do not know or, do not want to accept that they are at the end of their road.

Old Nicolae (68 years) from Agapia, Neamţ County, do not has the patience. He looks out the window at the sunny weather and he dreams at the garden he left behind. He wants to go home, put seedlings, as he does every year, but he is kept in place by perfusions and tubes that ease his pain. It is not very clear for him what exactly is he doing in this hospital. "I have never been interned into a hospital. I was never sick. Last year I started to feel bad", says the old man. Doctors diagnose surprised him. " I have a bit of cirrhosis”, is sighing old Nicolae. He sits in a room with two other colleagues. Is well taken care, but he is really missing his small house from Agapia. "Every day they wash and take care of me. My brothers are coming to visit me, but I hope to go home soon, "says the pensioner. From time to time he is changing a word with one of his room mates.

"I am from Moţca and is already the third time I come here. I have not made any friends because I don’t intend to stay too long "says Nicolae’s colleague, convinced, who has a lung disease. The other patient is so sick that he cannot speak. Some of the patients know the truth and how the end will be but some of them don’t, until the last minute. The truth is told in small doses.

"There are patients who do not know nor want to know. Others, want to know with all means and must be prepared and tell them gradually. We never take the patient's hope. There is always something to be done ", states psychologist Ruxandra Filipescu. She deals with the patients therapy, but also of the relatives. Patients also have a notebook of thoughts, where they can write a few words. Hospital staff has seen hundreds of lives “turning off” under their eyes. Most were elderly.

The most difficult was with the children. George, Marian, Catalin, Ciprian are just some of the little that have admitted to "palliation" and at their departure left a void in the soul of both relatives and medical staff. "Often children impress. At least for us, George was a life lesson. He never complained and was always cheerful. He impressed with his courage and how he accepted the illness”, remembers Ruxandra Filipescu. George lived with his father at the hospital. After two months of suffering, the 13 years old child was defeated by cancer.

Just because the patient's end can come anytime, visits here are not restricted. "Patients may be visited non-stop. We always have requests for such care. Only from the beginning of the year were hospitalized 200 patients, "states Costică Panzaru, director of the Municipal Hospital Pascani.

Free places for emergencies

We always keep some vacant places for urgent cases. Also, in the last moments of life, patients are moved from their room to another reserve. Two specialists, a psychologist, a social worker, 20 nurses and 23 assistants are taking care of them. "There is a lack of personnel. We are only two doctors, but should be five. They announced publicly three vacant positions but no one signed up, "says Lucia Filipescu doctor specialist.

Besides the specialized staff, patients receive counselling from a priest and a lawyer.

"I heard that there is a section where many people dies"

Only two of the patients who passed through this special department of the hospital in Pascani have a happy ending story. "She was a patient from Focsani which was brought to the Department of palliative care, but we operate her, and later she even married in our hospital. Now she feels well and always calls us at Christmas", says doctor Costică Panzaru, director of the Municipal Hospital in Pascani.

Maria (31 years) from Iasi County, is also a happy event. She was diagnosed with cancer and transferred from Iasi to Pascani. Here, the doctors discovered that the diagnosis is far from the truth. "Now I am paralyzed from the bottom half, but I will walk again. I am here since three weeks because I was laying too much on my back so I’ve got some serious injures", explains Maria. The relatives are always with her and expect that after recovery to take her back home. "And I hardly can wait to go home and take care of my little nine years old boy", says the young women.

Other patients, although there was no recovery in their cases, they thought that life had been easier at the hospital in Pascani. One of them is Dumitru, from Iasi, who was interned two years ago. "In the first three days I was in an insufferable pain. With the help of doctors and nurses, and the attention they treated me, I do not have big pain anymore. I heard that this is a bad section, where it dies a lot, but is not as rumoured”, wrote the patient in the hospital’s record book.

Booking with two months in advance

Patients are succeeding in high speed. Only in 2007, when the department opened, were 485 patients, and last year 685 people. The department has only 50 places available. "We have waiting lists with two months in advance. Requests have increased a lot and have remained high, "said Liliana Perţu, head-assistant of the department.

But earlier this year were 200 patients hospitalized.    Costică Panzaru, Director

We never take the patient's hope. There is always something to be done                                                           Ruxandra Filipescu, psychologist

There is a lack of staff. We are only two doctors, but should be five                                                                                Filipescu Lucia, physician