A Bucket List Fishing Tale
One day late last summer, the Houston Hospice Intake Team was answering calls as usual on a Wednesday morning when my colleague, Marcy Antiuk, received an unexpected call, and an unusual request. A doctor phoned to tell us that her patient wanted to be admitted to our inpatient hospice care center, but he had one last desire before discontinuing treatments and surrendering to his disease. You see, this man’s disease had progressed to the point that ceasing treatment would decrease his life expectancy to a matter of days. He needed to be transitioned to hospice services that day due to symptom management issues, but first, he wanted to go on one last fishing trip. In fact, . Working in the hospice field, we’re accustomed to satisfying end-of-life requests, and we often grant day passes out of our facility for this purpose. These are typically outings to visit other family members or to have a meal out. Journeying to the edge of our coverage area for several hours was not an issue. However, this man had a severe and painful wound at the base of his spine that made moving him difficult — transportation would be the key to successfully executing this bucket list wish. The family had already inquired about private-pay ambulance transport, but the quote they received was overwhelming — several hundred dollars, maybe even a thousand. Gathering a team of individuals (Larissa Williams, Dr. Elizabeth Strauch, Jayne O’Brien and me), we discussed the patient’s condition and possible complications. We determined that the request was reasonable as long as the patient was safe, and stable enough to make the trip. An evaluation by our Admitting Nurse, Debbie Breaux, confirmed that the patient’s symptoms were manageable, however it also revealed that pain management was a concern. Because of the expensive private ambulance quote, the man’s family had decided to transport him to the fishing pier in a family vehicle. He desperately wanted this last fishing trip, but we feared the car ride would cause excruciating pain. The only safe option was transportation via ambulance, so we started calling our contracted ambulance companies asking if they would consider a full or partial charity transport. Orion EMS came to the rescue. After gathering only a small amount of information, they immediately agreed to cover all transportation expenses in order to fulfill this last request! Arrangements were made to pick up the patient the very next day. Houston Hospice provided a wheelchair and oxygen for the patient to use during the trip. Hollie Sims and I assisted while Orion EMS transported the patient to his fishing pier. The water, the pier, the landscape—everything was perfect. The late summer sunlight shimmering from the water was matched only by the twinkle in our patient’s eyes. After he finished fishing, Orion EMS provided a safe and comfortable ride to the inpatient unit. This was a great collaborative effort by many people with a triumphant blessing as an end result—just another reason why we love this work so very much.
Thomas Moore, Houston Hospice Patient Care Manager
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