Trinity’s care touches a person’s life often months before the end of their lives, and doesn’t stop until what can be months after a person dies.
We care for our patients through all stages of their palliative condition, from diagnosis, through pain control and living well to end of life care and onto bereavement care for those left behind.
And we can only do all of that for every single person who needs us on the Fylde coast because of the amazing people who support us.
Two of our incredible nurses who work with patients in the community have shared a recent experience where they pulled out all the stops to care for a local woman after she had died – going above and beyond to make sure her family could say goodbye according to her wishes.
“We were called to a patient’s home as she was in the end stages of motor-neurone disease.
The patient and her family didn’t understand English, so it was really hard to be able to prepare them for what was about to happen. Through our chaplaincy team at the hospice, we were able to arrange for a translator to be there, who did so out of the goodness of his heart.
We stayed with the patient and their family to support them for a number of hours, and when they were more understanding of the situation and what was to happen, we left.
Our team got a call the following morning to say the patient had passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family.
We visited the next day, and honestly we were just shocked about how much was involved in preparing the lady for a funeral in her culture.
It was a weekend, so we were really struggling to get a death certificate prepared in time for a funeral, but we made calls to the coroner in Preston and then arranged for a private ambulance to take her to London to align with her final wishes.We had a lot of help from the Imam at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, and we honestly learned so much in those two days about how different cultures prepare for and deal with death.
A person’s faith is so important to them, and during Covid more than ever. We all have policies and procedures to abide by, but sometimes allowing someone’s faith to come first is all the care they need. It was a very humbling experience to be part of.
Lynsey Winchester and Perri Hartfield
Associate Clinical Nurse Specialists
Our nurses work hard 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to give all patients across Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre the very best palliative and end of life care. They work in the community, in the hospice and at the hospital, where they have also seen first-hand the effects of Covid-19 on patients, as well as their families.
We need our community’s support, now more than ever, so that we can be there for everyone who needs us, through Covid and beyond.
