A terminally ill elderly woman in Australia had an ambulance crew transporting her to a local hospital on the country’s east coast make one small diversion: a nearby beach, where she could see the ocean for the last time.
“Tears were shed,” the Queensland Ambulance Service’s Hervey Bay officer-in-charge Helen Donaldson wrote in a post on the crew’s Facebook page on Wednesday, captioning a photo of paramedic Graeme Cooper standing aside the patient on a gurney as the two overlooked the water that has since been shared over 68,000 times. “The patient felt very happy.”
“Sometimes it is not the drugs/training/skills — sometimes all you need is empathy to make a difference!” they continued.
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The patient was heading to the palliative care unit in Hervey Bay, Australia, Donaldson explained. Cooper later told a series of reporters she was on “her last journey back to (palliative care) where she was going basically to pass away,” news.com.au reported.
“We popped her up on the hill where she could see the pier and Fraser Island and right through to Point Burrum and she was ecstatic with it all,” Cooper said, adding that he would have taken her right down to the water had the coastline not been so rocky.
“I thought, ‘If all these rocks weren’t here I’d get down into my jocks and take you into the ocean‘ ” he recalled, Ten Eyewitness News reported. “And I would have, however I thought the next best thing was I can get some ocean and bring it to her. … She actually tasted the salt water.”
While Cooper got permission for the detour from his supervisions, he went on to say that fulfilling requests like this are par for the course.
“In special cases where end of life stuff is going on … the contact we have is our last contact … (we want to) feel good about humans and people and the way they’re treated and managed so they get a good feeling,” he said, New Idea reported. “It’s always someone else’s father, mother, brother. If I lose my compassion I just won’t be in the job.”
“We’re very fortunate we’re in the role we do,” Cooper continued. “If you’re sensitive to your surroundings … when a window of opportunity opens up, take it.”
Danielle Kellan, the other parametric traveling with Cooper who took the photo, explained she had asked the patient what she was thinking as she watched the waves.
“She said, ‘I’m at peace, everything is right,’ ” Kellan said, according to news.com.au.
The Queensland Ambulance Service thanked both Kellan and Cooper for giving the woman her dying wish. “Great work Hervey Bay team,” they wrote. “Danielle and Graeme, the Service is very proud of you.”
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