Hospice hopes to
offer more help for
terminally ill
Needed is $2.5 million for a
By Rod Thompson
new facility where Hospice of Hilo
can aid families facing death
Star-BulletinHILO -- During Hatsumi Matsumoto's last days, her dog lay with her on the bed while her cat perched in a box above her head, both protecting her, said hospice nurse Susan Pau'ole. Matsumoto passed away sitting in a chair while her daughter Hester Kodama took a nap on her bed.
"She went very peacefully," Kodama said.
Matsumoto, 85, a seamstress and housewife, died of pancreatic cancer Oct. 25 after a year of home care provided by Hospice of Hilo.
The Hilo organization is one of eight hospices in the state providing care to terminally ill patients.
The private, nonprofit Hospice of Hilo is now in the midst of a $2.5 million fund-raising campaign to build a counseling and training facility, with completion expected next fall.
The new facility will offer services not only to terminally ill patients, but also to families who have suffered the death of a child, said Hospice executive director Brenda Ho.
Meanwhile, at-home services are continuing.
Karen Matsumoto, another of Hatsumi Matsumoto's daughters, credited the hospice program with relieving many burdens during her mother's final months.
"What hospice did for us was incredible," she said. "It was really good to have my mother pass away at home. When my father passed away, it was in the hospital and he was full of tubes."
Marilyn Herbert had a similar experience when her mother, Mabel Reis, died of stomach cancer March 16 at age 80.
"She didn't want to die in the hospital. She wanted to die at home," Herbert said.
Without hospice, Herbert would have had to put her mother in a care home or the hospital at great expense, she said.
Ho said all of the services and medications provided by Hospice are free. In some cases, insurance reimburses the organization. In other cases, funding comes from the Hawaii Island United Way and other donations.
Hospice care is highly cost-effective, said public relations officer Ron Hart. Hospital costs typically start at $500 per day and go higher. Hospice provides care for $100 per day or less, he said.
While the organization serves patients who are expected to have six months or less, some live much longer. Both Matsumoto and Reis lived for a year after entering the program, most of that time with little outward sign of their illness.
Ho said some people are reluctant to enter the program, hoping for a miracle when doctors say an illness is incurable.
They should consider joining anyway, she said. "We've seen miracles happen. We've discharged people out of our program because they were doing better," she said.
"Our society doesn't accept death very well," she said.
There is a tendency for family and friends to pull away from a dying person.
The hospice staff, which includes three nurses, a social worker, other professionals, a chaplain and about 100 volunteers, can provide companionship and hope during that time, she said.
Kodama's son Kyle, 10, was uncomfortable with his grandmother dying and gave the family problems for a while, his mother said.
But with his grandmother at home, he changed. Kyle helped by giving his grandmother insulin and doing routine physical checks such as blood counts, Kodama said. "I think he felt useful, like he had some say in how she was," she said.
In Herbert's family, having her mother at home meant "everybody had a chance to say goodbye," she said.
"We thought we did the right thing. It was just perfect."
