A father’s last request and a thank you to staff

Your “compassion, empathy and humanity will never be forgotten”

On behalf of my family and myself, I am writing to you regarding the wonderful care that my father received from the staff at the Medicine Telemetry section of Richmond General Hospital.

In particular, we wanted to thank Dr. Gabra for the caring way that she tried to explain our father’s condition to us.  She is a wonderful doctor and should be recognized for the love and empathy she shows towards her patients and their families.

I also wanted to express my gratitude towards Dad’s nurse, Michelle. She looked after him before he was sent up to Palliative Care. It was my father’s last request to leave the hospital, he had been there for almost a month and just wanted to get outside, I promised him I would take him outside. I told Michelle about my father’s request and our promise to grant it.

On the day that my father was supposed to be taken to Palliative Care, I was informed that my father could not go outside on the Palliative Care balcony because it may put stress on his body. At this point, my father had not eaten or drank anything in a couple of days and the doctors had informed us that he would most likely not live past a week. Based on this information, my family was prepared to take the risk. We were prepared to fight with anyone that day to ensure that my father went outside at least once before he passed away. Fortunately for us, Michelle fought very bravely on our behalf and we were able to take him outside for 20 minutes before he was transferred to Palliative Care.

The compassion, empathy and humanity showed towards our father will never be forgotten and I cannot express in words our gratitude towards [them] for being able to grant him his last wish. I will never know if my father was aware we took him outside, but it calmed our hearts to sit with him on one of his last few days with a light breeze and the sun on his face.

Later that evening, he was moved into Palliative Care. His palliative nurse, Sarb, who was with him on the last day was very kind, especially to my mother. The time she took to speak to us and also sit with my mother to ease her suffering just a tiny bit has not gone unnoticed.

My father passed away [in June]. My family is very thankful for the care that he got in Telemetry section and Palliative section of Richmond General Hospital.

Thank you.