Children’s hospice and palliative centre named in honour of Rohan Bloom, 15

HOSPITALS in the province send children with terminal illnesses home to die as there are no facilities for children’s palliative care in the province, according to city paediatrician Michelle Meiring.

More often than not, households are neither medically equipped nor emotionally ready to welcome and take care of a dying child.

The Rohan Bloom Foundation has announced an initiative to launch a children’s hospice and palliative care centre with a promise to close the void in the province’s medical fraternity.

The event took place at the Century City conference hall on Thursday evening. The foundation, named after founder Rodney Bloom’s son, who died aged 15 from cancer in 2016, welcomed more than 500 guests at the event. Thursday would have been Rohan’s 17th birthday.

Through the kindness of several donors, the foundation has purchased a home that will accommodate up to eight children with terminal illnesses, Bloom said.

Officially opening next year, the Rohan House will be situated a kilometre away from the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

Bloom added: “We will be working very closely with Red Cross; they’re going to be doing referrals of children who are terminally ill or in their palliative stage.

“Children are dying in hospital, which isn’t the right place to pass away. You need a tranquil environment. You need specialists. Without the support they should have, a lot of the children are dying in shacks in the city.”

He said terminally ill children and their families deserved dignity and respect. Bloom thanked the sponsors who helped him put the event together.

Meiring, founding director of Paedspal and a Paediatric Palliative Care Consultant, worked together with the Bloom foundation. “We’re very excited about (the initiative) as we launch a foundation that will help children.”

Across the country, there are 134 hospices, most of which look after adults, she said. Meiring added that costs are a major challenge for hospices.

She estimates that the centre will operate on a budget of R2 000 per day. “We will take 8-10 children for as long as they need to stay.”

According to statistics, she said, there are about 800 000 children who need palliative care and about 300 000 more who need specialist palliative care. In the province, about 50 000 children need palliative care. “If you look at the death statistics, the Cape metro has the highest in the province,”said Meiring.

Bloom and Meiring said they spent years looking for a suitable house for the centre. They eventually found one with seven bedrooms and five bathrooms in Rondebosch.