Posted on 07/12/2023 1:47:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A 79-year-old woman on hospice got her final wish – to see her beloved horse one last time.
Karina Courtmanche’s dying wish was to be reunited with her horse Bella, who lives on a small farm in Bethany, Connecticut.
Courtmanche has owned 30-year-old Bella since the horse was a baby.
Courtmanche is in hospice care with not much time left, her caretakers said.
Michelle Walker, RN Case Manager for Connecticut Hospice, said Courtmanche told her of her wish to see her beloved horse again.
“We were talking with her, and she kept talking about her horse Bella, that she wanted to see Bella,” Walker said.
Walker worked with Courtmanche’s nursing home to grant her final wish. The teams coordinated a way to get her to the farm one last time, including an ambulance ride so she could remain on a stretcher and receive care during the ride.
Once at the farm, Courtmanche got to see Bella again, petting her nose and feeding her a carrot.
“I’m very excited that I’m able to give her this last wish. It’s important to her, so it’s important to us,” Walker said.
Once Courtmanche passes, Bella will continue to be cared for at Bittersweet Farm.
I am surprised hospice would allow this.
Screw Hospice! If she wanted to see her horse then someone makes that happen, her family should have. No one should ever have to ask hospice permission to do anything.
That’s how hospice is.
The hospice had no problem granting it, but there are still legalities and practicalities in the matter, such as finding an ambulance that could take her or legal liabilities if she had died on the trip.
That’s compassionate. If it had been in Canada, they would have euthanized both her and the horse.
Then her family , if she had any, should have stepped in. She could have signed a waiver if necessary for the trip.
Seriously. That’s what most here would do.
Hospice doesn’t care what you do in your last days or hours.
People they serve are dying in their beds, so Hospice doesn’t have procedures (or money and staff) to handle requests for final motorcycle rides or skydiving.
Its up to doctors and the family. The Hospice people I know are very caring and will do whatever is within their power (which is very limited)
Hopefully I won’t need hospice anytime soon, but at this moment, I’d like to think that if I am about to step foot into eternity I would have other things on my mind. But yes, it is a sweet story.
You’d have to take it up with the family as to why they didnt step in. Hospices ate bound by regulations. You just cant cowboy through these things.
That’s beautiful song, made even better by the piano solo intro and coda. That solo is based on a piece by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. Prelude in D flat, Op 11, No. 15.
Yep. There are plenty of legalities nowadays. Hospice has to watch their six, too.
Thank you, Nick!
PING to a buddy who loves horses!
You are welcome.
lol
Sad she does not have family that made that happen.
Not about me but just getting too close in age if not time.
Wondering what determines who will be an active 80 year-old or when the thing ticking inside you goes off.
Live today,
Dream tomorrow
and
Cherish the past.
Give it all you’ve got.
I’ve been through life ends with my parents and wife of 42 years. Hospice was a blessing.
The old man pulled through, but the hospital refused to put Dad back on fluids or nutrition because - you guessed it - "comfort care" IN THAT HOSPITAL and for THAT DOCTOR is effectively Terri Schaivo-style starvation and dehydration.
They said, food and water was a medical treatment and thus "curative" and AGAINST the rules of "comfort care."
My friend was stunned. And the attending and her team wouldn't budge. For the next few days, my friend and siblings heard from scores of nurses etc that withholding fluids was effectively "the right thing to do"....very Terri Schaivo-like.
It took a virtual miracle whereby a different doctor intervened, said the father clearly wasn't terminal, and put the old man back on nutrition and fluids. While my friend's Dad passed away peacefully in his sleep a few weeks later, it was on his terms.
Euthanasia is, technically, illegal. And I know many people would be OK if fluids were withheld when it is THEIR time to go. Fair enough.
But euthanasia can be made legal if you're not careful with Fine Print or discernment process around the "mercy killing" mindset of the attending.
“...or legal liabilities if she had died on the trip.”
That’s what waivers and hold-harmless agreements are for.
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