Bereavement tray service launched for families of children receiving End-of-Life care at AKUH
There was a six-year-old girl waiting with her family for an ambulance to take the body of her elder sister home. It was a long wait and at one point she declared that she was hungry. Then there was a woman who was fasting as a form of prayer for her child, who did not eventually make it.
These are the experiences of two families that Dr Shahzadi Resham shared on Friday to explain why she decided to work on introducing a bereavement tray service as part of palliative care for grieving families at Aga Khan University Hospital.
Often parents who are at the bedside of a very sick child, who is receiving end-of-life care are loathe to leave to go to the cafeteria for a meal. As the child is sometimes on tube feeding or is not allowed to eat, the parents don't eat either.
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Dr Shahzadi Resham witnessed these cases and decided that the hospital had to offer support. She first undertook a small experiment by bringing in food, juice boxes and water bottles on her own. The nurses gave her positive feedback, saying that it ameliorated their “moral distress" when they were caring for such families and could do little to help. “I have been through this situation where parents forget to eat in critical situations," wrote one staff member.
Dr Resham then roped in colleagues from Nursing, Pharmacy and Food Service, Finance and Administration and IT to find a way to provide these meals at no extra cost. Now the online patient information system has a “bereavement tray" drop-down menu option that was specially created by IT.
AKUH CEO Dr Farhat Abbas thanked Dr Resham and said that he wanted this service to be instituted wherever AKUH had operations. “Keep in mind your first and foremost responsibility is to take care of those who need it," he said, “And take care not through only medicines and injections and cuts and sutures and tubes and all that. You have to take care of them holistically."
He shared how disappointed he felt when an old friend only sent an emoji as condolence upon the death of his mother. And how urgent it felt to him that AKUH had to provide emotional support for grieving families.
CMO Dr Asim Belgaumi said that he believed that care is more important than cure. “Because you can't cure everybody. But if your care goes through and if you spend time and you truly, truly, truly think about your patients and think about their families and everybody else who's around them then it makes a difference."
For his part, COO Dr Mairaj Shah said that it would not matter how great a scientist you were if you did not have the passion of connecting with your patients.
They all warmly appreciated the initiative and said that Dr Resham could count on the institution to support more palliative care efforts.
“Winnie the Pooh wisely said: some people care too much," said Dr Fyezah Jehan, the Chair of Paediatrics & Child Health. “I think it's called love. And I think, okay Resham is there. Resham embodies that love for her patients."
