COMFORTING CARE

Finding Comfort

Hospice was a concept Mary Snyder was already familiar with before she needed the services herself. Three decades ago, while working in the education department at a health care organization, she got the opportunity to visit a hospice house in Connecticut.

“I watched the compassion, the care, and the love they gave all their patients,” she says.“they truly let them die with dignity at the end. I was there for a week and it just impressed me so much.”

When she returned to Florida, she began reading the writings of Elisabeth Kübler-ross, the Swiss-american psychiatrist who was a pioneer in neardeath studies and the author of the influential book On Death and Dying. “I was just touched,” Mary recalls.“this is what to do when you're at the end of your stage; these are the kind of people you need to be involved with.”

She saw the effectiveness of hospice firsthand when her own father was dying of cancer. “It made his life at the end better,” she says.

“He was comfortable; he had a good support system around him. And

I knew when I got to that point, that's what I would want.”

Mary began using the services of Hope Healthcare in 2015. She suffers from multiple medical conditions, including diabetes, severe aortic stenosis and throat issues that have required two surgeries and a tracheotomy, for seven years. She first received care from Hope Hospice and when her condition stabilized, she moved to Hope Palliative Care.

Hope Palliative Care helps people who are living with serious illness to live comfortably in the place they call home.the comfort-focused program, which does not require a terminal diagnosis, provides: clinical care visits, pain and symptom management, custom care plans, social services, education and volunteer support.

Mary appreciates the ease with which she's been able to transition between

Hope's hospice and palliative care programs and the level of service she's received from every Hope staff member she's encountered.“they do try to make you as comfortable as they can,” she says.

After taking a bad fall, Mary returned to hospice care.

“I knew that if I needed something, I could call hospice at any time,” she says. “And I have. I've called in the middle of the night and someone sat on the phone with me and just talked me down to breathe.”

She's grateful that care from Hope gives her the option to remain in her own home instead of moving to a nursing home.and since she lives alone and has trouble traveling outside her home, having care provided by Hope in-home and over the phone is a big plus.

“When you wake up with chest pain and you're gasping for air and there's nobody here, you're scared,” she says. “You think, `I'm going to die right here by myself.' And then you get on the phone and get that person from Hope at the end of the line and you feel like God just sent you an angel.”

Using hospice is a choice Mary's thankful she has.“people have a concept that you go to hospice to die.well yes, you do—to die comfortably,” she says.“with the help of hospice, you can make your final ending just as beautiful as can be.

You're a lucky person to be able to get help from a group like this.”

To learn more about Hope Palliative Care or Hope Hospice, visit Hopehcs.org or call 239-482-HOPE.

Hope Palliative Care helps people who are living with serious illness to live comfortably in the place they call home.