Chen brings comfort to patients in their last days
Print Edition
C aring for terminally ill patients comes naturally to Chen Ye and her team.
As head nurse of the Palliative Care Center at Jiading Yingyuan Hospital, Chen is dedicated to treating the men and women in her charge with dignity.
The hospital reserved 10 beds for terminally ill cancer patients when it set up the district’s first palliative care pilot project.
It looks a lot different to the normal hospital wards with their sterile white walls.
Here you see curtains in warm colors, brightly patterned sheets and rainbow-colored origami cranes hanging above the beds.
“We want to calm the patients’ nerves by creating a home-like environment,” Chen said, “since they have to suffer everyday from pains that ordinary people could not easily bear.”
Chen also organizes musical entertainment for her patients with records and radio. “I hope those arrangements could help them going through last days of their lives with happiness and dignity,” she said.
Devoted to comforting
One gastric cancer patient, surnamed Peng, is full of praise for the way he is being looked after.
“She treats me better than my daughter.” Peng said.
Peng’s wife, Wu Fangping, could only agree after seeing Chen downloading songs that were Peng’s favorites and making fresh fruit juice for her husband.
Chen devotes herself to comforting her patients by all the means at her disposal.
When a 50-year-old female breast cancer patient, also surnamed Chen, tried to commit suicide because she felt as if she was too much of a burden on her family, Chen came to the rescue.
Aware that she was suffering not just physical pain but also mental anguish, Chen even gave up her spare time to accompany the patient and seek advice on her physical and mental health.
A relative, Liu Zhengyan, said the patient Chen was extremely grateful for the head nurse’s efforts. “My aunt Chen always said that the pain would have killed her if she hadn’t been given help,” Liu said.
When the patient passed away, the family tried to give 500 yuan (US$80) to Chen in recognition of her work but she refused to take it.
Chen and her team have cared for 115 patients in the past two years and they feel the work is its own reward — to give just one more patient a little relief from their pain.
Chen set up an official WeChat account recently, connecting busy children with their sick parents with a smartphone, just one other method she employs to ensure patients’ final days are as happy and as comfortable as possible.
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