Mark Twain said, "Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. "

With a diagnosis of cancer, he was admitted to our care on a Sunday early in the month.  As our staff began to attend to his needs the patient and his family never asked for anything other than pain control.  On a routine visit his case manager overheard the family discussing how the patient would often say, "I just wish I could see my brother once more."  Our nurse brought this to the attention of his social worker who took the request to our Life is Precious program.  Working together with the Life is Precious program coordinator they begin to seek a way to create this memorable moment in our patient's life.  As plans progressed his family informed our staff that the patient's brother lived out of state, was in his 80's, had poor eyesight, and needed to travel with his wife.   In a coordinated effort between the patient's brother, the patient's son, and our staff we were able to arrange to fly the brother and sister-in-law to the patient's bedside for a one week visit.

Arriving mid week, the next three days were spent in wonderful conversation and simply being present in each other's life.  By Saturday of that week the patient experienced a significant decline and on Sunday he died with his brother and other family at his bedside.  The next day, a Monday, his brother assisted local family members with memorial service arrangements, which took place Tuesday evening.  The patient's brother and wife returned home the following day.  Through our Life is Precious program we were able to provide our patient and his older brother this wonderful gift of time.

"Hats off" to the following people who did the right thing:  the start of care nurse who admitted the patient on a Sunday, the case manager who listened with her heart and brought the patient's desire to the social workers attention, the social worker who responded with her heart and brought the patient's unstated request to the attention of the Life is Precious program, the employees whose contributions to the Life is Precious program made this gift possible, and to our on-call nurse who attended the patient's death and comforted the family upon his death.

"The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct"  ~  Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth president of the United States