MACHIAS, Maine — Down East Community Hospital in Machias will soon undertake construction of a new palliative care suite that will provide a more homelike atmosphere for chronically ill patients as they deal with pain and other serious symptoms of disease.
“Palliative care is care that moves along a continuum from curative care to death,” said Julie Hixson, the 25-bed facility’s spokesperson. “In the beginning of a chronic illness, we do everything we can to provide curative treatments. When the chronic illness progresses to a place where fewer and fewer treatments provide any measurable relief of symptoms, we move toward end-of-life care.”
The $20,000 project involves combining two existing hospital rooms and renovating the new, larger area to create a comfortable, homelike suite that provides one room for the patient and another for their family members. Family amenities will include a pull-out couch, a refrigerator and an eating nook. The patient’s living area will be newly furnished and will include a flat-screen TV, Hixson said.
The suite is now being designed, and work is expected to begin within a few weeks, she said.
Of the $20,000 required, all but $4,000 is in hand as a result of community fundraising efforts and donations received as memorials. Hixson said those who would like to contribute to the project can call 255-0244 or mail a check or money order to Down East Community Hospital, 11 Hospital Drive, Machias 04654, with a notation that the funds are for the Palliative Care Suite.
This is one of those good/bad things. We shouldn’t need it, because we should have stem cell research to cure diseases, and a Death with Dignity Act for those diseases we can’t cure. Since we don’t have those things in the ways we need them, this is an expensive health care profit maker that will help patients ease into death.
What we want is *expansion* of choices — including taking one’s time dying if one so choose. So end-of-life care will still be necessary for those who choose that route.
Yes, that is absolutely right, I didn’t mean to make it sound like Death with Dignity is the only answer.
The idea for this was started quite a few years ago when DECH had an oncologist Dr.Minhar, who Dr Whalen brought to the area so patients wouldn’t have to travel for treatment. I had the privilege of working for him.