Lary Bloom
Writer, Editor, Teacher
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Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Musical Beds
The word is out that Hartford Hospital will close its palliative care unit. I became aware of this before the Hartford Courant learned of it. I knew because bad news travels fast in health-care circles, and because I had a stake in the unit. And I have come to know, over the last few years, Hartford Hospital as a place of enlightenment and innovation.What I was struck by, in the hospital's note to employees, was its coldness and obfuscation. The note addressed how positions would be shifted in the hospital, something of a game of musical chairs, with the requisite loser having no place to sit. The notice never had a declarative sentence that said, "We are closing the innovative and much needed unit where hundreds of families over the last few years have found comfort while their loved ones slipped into a mortal state. These families were grateful for what our unit offered well beyond the usual comforts of a hospital. They could play Mozart at a Steinway grand, could watch the tropical fish in the enormous tank, could stir-fry Chinese meals in the kitchen built solely for them, could sleep in the well-appointed bedrooms provided, could do their work on the computer in the corner, could otherwise find a sense of home at a terrible time." Instead it was the usual institutional language meant to dizzy the reader with everything but the heart of the matter.
I thought of my late wife Liz, and the way the angels (for that is what they were, angels) who tended her in that miracle of a place. When we all went through this in the spring of 2003, it occurred to me that some corner had been turned. That we were all learning about dignity in death. Hospitals couldn't cure everything. But they could be a place of humane transition. And they were becoming that way. A $2.6 million budget deficit changes that thinking, apparently. Now, a game of musical beds leaves out the people who need a place to rest in peace.
Posted by:Lary Bloom at 4:33 AM
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