The children?s hospice that helps terminally ill kids really live
On the reception desk, by the oak staircase, at Canuck Place Children?s Hospice rests a green Victorian lamp, which staff light when a child has just died?or is expected to die in the coming hours. This lets everyone in the house be mindful of the energy shift. A child?s death unleashes immeasurable grief for loved ones, but the families of kids who come to this innovative palliative care centre can take some solace in how their kids lived out their final days.
Michaela Evanow?s daughter, Florence Marigold, was a patient at Canuck Place. A sweet child with fawn brown eyes and a chin like a ripe peach, at just three-and-a-haf months old, she was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) type 1?a progressive neuromuscular disease with a terminal prognosis. Photo: Provided by Canuck Place Children?s Hospice
Wearing his signature bowtie as he does his rounds of the nine in-patient beds, medical director Hal Siden explains that paediatric palliative care didn’t exist until the 1990s, and even then it was all about pain management. He is proud of the holistic program that he and his colleagues have created at Canuck Place. ?Our service is about life,? he says. ?We can?t change these kids? diagnoses, but we can change everything around it. Our thinking is: For these kids every day has risks, so how can we make each day great for them"?
Last year, Canuck Place managed 1,736 outpatient consultations, offering their services to families in their home or at the hospital,...
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