Hospice House Provides End-of-Life Respite
Posted on: Wednesday, 14 December 2005, 18:00 CST
By Zachary K. Johnson, The Record, Stockton, Calif.
Dec. 14--STOCKTON -- Bobbie and Harry Wallinger were there for each other from the time they married in 1975.
They helped each other go back to school in the 1970s, and they supported each other's endeavors in theater.
And they were together last year at Hospice House during the last 17 days of Harry Wallinger's life.
They held each other when he died.
"I was able to be in bed with him, holding him in my arms," Bobbie Wallinger said. "It was peaceful."
Hospice House was designed as a place where patients could receive end-of-life medical care while living in a homelike setting. Patients are asked to pay only for room and board.
Harry Wallinger found out he had terminal cancer just after his 80th birthday in 2003, said Bobbie Wallinger, now 63.
"We had prayed about it; we had cried about it; we had laughed about it; we had hoped," she said.
Harry Wallinger decided to forgo treatment, taking medication only to manage the pain, she said.
He wanted to die at home, but as the illness progressed, it became harder to care for him there.
"Going to Hospice House was a new life. Everything turned around. He was perky again; his medication was under perfect control," she said.
Friends not only could come to visit, they could come for dinner in the dining room, she said.
One neighbor brought along Puffer, Harry Wallinger's cocker spaniel.
"Where else could you do that? It was fabulous," she said.
Hospice House has six private suites, but the nonprofit organization running it, Hospice of San Joaquin, provides in-home care to about 150 terminally ill patients a year, Executive Director Barbara Tognoli said.
Tognoli said caregivers reach patients from Tracy in San Joaquin County to Rio Vista in Solano County, but the organization needs donations to reach more people outside the immediate Stockton area.
The nonprofit does not charge for nursing care.
Hospice of San Joaquin was created in 1980; Hospice House opened last year.
Harry Wallinger was one of the first patients in the house. Bobbie Wallinger and some of the staff at Hospice House held a memorial for him on the first anniversary of his arrival, she said. They read passages from his favorite book: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."
"He wanted to enjoy the last moments he could enjoy," Wallinger said. "And he did."
-----
To see more of The Record, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.recordnet.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, The Record, Stockton, Calif.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
Source: The Record
Related Articles
- International Health Leaders to Share Innovations in Patient-Centered Care at 2009 Planetree Annual Conference
- Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino Contracts With NORESCO for $14.5 Million Water and Energy Savings Project
- Baptist Trinity Hospice House Receives Certificate of Need Approval
- Eighty Percent of U.S. Adults Favor Allowing Importation of Prescription Drugs, According to Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll
- Dr. Albert G. Mulley and Dr. John E. Wennberg Honored at the Annual Picker Institute Awards for Excellence in Patient-Centered Care
- 'Most Wired' Hospital Partners With GetWellNetwork(R) As Part of Patient-Centered Care Initiative
- Considerable Concern Exists Among U.S. Adults About the Frequency of Unnecessary or Overly Aggressive Medical Treatment, According to New Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll
- Substantial Numbers of Insured Pay, and Would Be Willing to Pay, for Doctors Who Don't Accept Their Health Insurance, According to New Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll
- Patient Centred Care: Lessons From the Medical Profession
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds