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ministered to. The blessings that I have received are much more than
anything that I could do, just being there. I remember one gentleman, his
family wanted him baptized at the LifeCareCenter so I went in and did it
and he died 15 minutes later. How humbling.
BRETT BLIZZARD: One memorable experience with my mother, Evelyn
Blizzard, was at the care center. The morning she passed, the word just went
through the whole center, and all of a sudden every staff member came in and
hugged us. It was the most special thing.
NICOLE FREEBOURN: We’re coming from so many different
perspectives, and so we’re treating the body and the soul and the
heart. Let’s control the symptoms, but let’s also treat any underlying
emotional issues and things that you have unresolved or any
spiritual issues that you need to work through, and as a team,
we can approach this holistically.
SELENA BOYETTE: I think that’s the way that hospice is very different from
other areas of medicine. Typically we look to our doctors to be paternalistic
and, ‘This is what you’re going to do, this is going to be the plan, this is how
you’re going to get better.’ In hospice, the patient gets to drive the bus, and
meeting them where they are is incredibly important. They have choices about
things. We don’t tell them what they have to do. We don’t tell them you have
to take morphine. It’s more about laying all the cards on the table and letting
them pick their own options, let them have some autonomy. When you’re
dying, sometimes you don’t really have control. But if we can give them some
control over dictating how this is going to be, it really is their writing of their
very own last chapter.
LAURIE BYSTROM: You brought up something interesting about why
hospice is different and that’s the whole team approach to it.
at the table
LAURIE BYSTROM, RN, BA, MPH
Laurie Bystrom has been the President and CEO of
Lower Cape Fear Hospice & LifeCareCenter since
2000. Ms. Bystrom
is a registered nurse
by background and
worked in nursing
administrative
positions in Ohio
and Wilmington
for 30 years prior to
coming to hospice.
During her tenure,
the agency has
grown from serving
60 patients per day
to close to 600 in
all of their programs. Ms. Bystrom has held
a position on the ethics committee of New
Hanover Regional Health Network for nine years
and has served as the past president of the
Hospice Providers Network of North Carolina.
at the table
REV. JOHN BIRKENHEUER
Rev. John Birkenheuer has been a hospice
volunteer in home
care and at the
LCFH&LCC for
three years, also
serving its board
for three years.
He is a former
hospice center
chaplain, and
currently serves as the pastor of Potts Memorial
Presbyterian Church, in Willard, North Carolina.
He is a graduate of Villanova University.
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