Hospice eases the pain

Michelle Swafford

Monday, Nov. 28, 2005 | 8:23 a.m.

When Southern California resident Peggy Cole learned she was terminally ill during a recent visit to Las Vegas, she decided to spend her final days here.

She chose to reside in Nathan Adelson Hospice after health professionals said she would not recover from her spreading cancer.

"My mother didn't want to make the trip home, and when I saw the place I could see why," Cole's son, Gary, said. "The place is beautiful and the rooms are like home. It was not like a hospital. It really moved me."

Peggy Cole died Nov. 20 at Nathan Adelson Hospice.

Hospice is a philosophy of care that utilizes a team approach that includes doctors, nurses, social workers, family members and the patient in a hospice center or a patient's home. The team members work to control the pain and enhance the quality of life for the terminally ill. Support services also are available to family members.

"Hospice care is a philosophy more than a place," said Cassandra Cotton, Nathan Adelson's community relations and outreach director, who has worked as a certified nursing assistant. "One of the bigger misconceptions is that 'I have to bring my mother someplace or bring my father someplace.' "

She said hospice provides spiritual, physical and emotional care to patients and their families.

"It's not about the dying," Cotton said. "It's about how they live and the quality of life they live. They die comfortably."

Demand for hospice care is increasing in Southern Nevada as more people learn about the option. The Las Vegas Valley has 56 inpatient hospice beds at three locations; a fourth location with 16 beds is in the planning stages in Henderson. Nine other companies operate in-home hospice care.

Nathan Adelson Hospice was created in 1978 after Nathan Adelson, a philanthropist and administrator at Sunrise Hospital, died of cancer in 1977. Adelson's son, Merv, and family friend, Irwin Molasky, established the center, which was the first hospice in Nevada and the third in the United States, hospice officials say.

Hospice patients must have a doctor's order and typically have been diagnosed with six months or less to live, which is the requirement for a Medicare insurer to pay for the care.

Nathan Adelson Hospice has a nonprofit foundation that raises money to pay for items that Medicare and private payers will not cover and for pediatric hospice care.

A common misperception is that hospice patients are always old and suffering from cancer, Cotton said. Babies, centenarians and people in between with various terminal conditions have used hospice, she said.

Many people want to be at home and comfortable with their families at their bedsides.

That's the case for Las Vegas resident Joanne Darbonne's husband, Joseph, who has Parkinson's disease and emphysema.

"The doctor said, 'There's just nothing more I can do for him,' " Joanne Darbonne said.

Her husband has been receiving in-home hospice care for two months. A doctor trained in palliative care visits once a month, a registered nurse visits once a week and a certified nursing assistant visits three times a week.

"They have a volunteer who comes for two to three hours a week so I can get out and keep my sanity," Darbonne said.

Hospice has provided oxygen, a walker, shower chair and wheelchair for Darbonne's husband.

"These people are absolutely marvelous," Darbonne said. "They're just always there if you need them. If you need help and you have someone who is terminal, I cannot recommend hospice enough. They are such a big help."

Darbonne isn't the only one who relishes the caretakers.

"The people there were amazing to me," Gary Cole said. "They prepared meals for me as well. I had a place to sleep. They made it very comfortable for me and they were very concerned about how I was doing.

"I had cancer five years ago and I'm a survivor," he said, adding that his hospital care was much different from the hospice care his mother received. "In a hospital they give you a bath every few days. My mother had a bath daily. Her sheets were changed daily. She was treated like a queen."

He said community volunteers brought in pets, and a woman played the harp weekly for the residents while his mother was there, he said.

Nathan Adelson Hospice has a kitchen where family members can cook, a play area for children and a living room arrangement for families to visit.

"We want to keep that home environment -- the same things you do at home you're more than welcome to do in our home as well," Cotton said. "Life continues to go on. Yes, you have a loved one in our facility, but we want you to know that life continues, so we try to make it comfortable."

Outdoor gardens surround the private patient rooms, which have patios where families can sit.

"That facility, I told my sister, when the time comes you can send me from California back to that facility," Cole said. "That facility made it much better and much more bearable. I cannot find anything that I would criticize. Every time I come to Las Vegas I will stop by and visit."

Michelle Swafford can be reached at 259-2326 or at swafford@ lasvegassun.com.