AMID GRIEF, MUCH GRATITUDE
Family thanks Jewish General
Dalia Giorgi lost her mother four weeks ago to leukemia and her grief is fresh and raw. But bereft as she is, she is also profoundly grateful to everyone at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital who looked after her mother throughout her illness — in particular when she was an in-patient during the final five weeks of her life. And she wants them to know.
“I have no words to describe the level of devotion and compassion they all showed us,” she said.
“It was such a hard time and, truly, we would not have made it without each and every one of them. I know it sounds crazy, but they made my mom feel so at home in the hospital.”
After being treated successfully for breast cancer nine years ago and for endometrial cancer five years ago, Gaby Ettedgui Giorgi learned in February of 2017 that she had acute myeloid leukemia.
From the outset, her doctor was clear: It was a brutal cancer and her age and history meant it would take her eventually — she died on Sept. 23 at 76 — “but that didn’t stop him from trying to help her,” said Dalia.
“They were realistic. Still, you felt you were with people who were doing all that they could,” said Romano Giorgi, Dalia’s father and Gaby’s husband of more than 46 years. And that, he said, makes him grateful “with my entire heart.”
Initially, there was treatment “that gave her a really good year,” said Dalia, 36. “It was constant chemo but she learned to live with it, and she felt good.”
In time, though, the treatment stopped working and on Aug. 10, her mother was admitted to hospital: She needed transfusions all the time and “so many times, she had so many issues. But really, we were always in good hands with all the doctors and staff and support staff of the entire hematological oncology team.”
She knows that complaints about the medical system, and hospitals in particular, are often heard. But her family’s experience showed Dalia “how, sometimes, the system really does work. … I am sure we are not the only ones,” she said.
“We are so thankful for all their kindness throughout that difficult time.”
Hans Knecht, chief of the division of hematology at the Jewish General, was her mother’s doctor and, during her time as an in-patient, he saw her every morning and again in the evening before he left for the day, for “just a good night and boost of morale,” Dalia said.
“‘How are you feeling ?’ he would ask,” she recalled. Either Dalia or her father was with Gaby almost all the time.
“There was always personal talk: He would talk about his family and, while he was examining her, he managed to make her feel happy and comfortable.”
When Knecht himself was off on a medical leave, other members of the team took his place.
Said Romano, 79: “The doctors say they are a team and you see that when they are with the patient, in the way they talk, that they have really mastered the situation. It is impressive.”
On Sept. 9, the first night of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Gaby was to go home from the hospital on a pass to spend a few hours with family in the house she loved so much. One of the nurses on the floor offered to help her have a shower so she would be fresh and clean for her visit. Despite the fact that the nurse was incredibly busy, Dalia recalled her saying, “I want to make sure you have a nice shower before you go home.”
Orderlies went out of their way, too, to make sure her mother was comfortable. As they changed the sheets, they would talk to her and tell her jokes, Dalia said. One time, an orderly came in to change her just before the end of his shift — and saw that she was vomiting blood. “He hadn’t seen her like that before,” Dalia said, “and he was genuinely concerned. He squeezed her arm and stayed with her.
“I just saw so much kindness. And they care for so many people.”
Said her father: “We were impressed by the patience of the nurses — by how, with gentle authority, they were able to feed my wife the pills that she would otherwise refuse constantly.
“It is so admirable. It is like they are one family: You see it in the way they help each other,” he said, “and in the moral support they are able to give to the patients and to all those around them.”
He would talk about his family and, while he was examining her, he managed to make her feel happy and comfortable.