While many people still associate hospices with death, dying and the smell of antiseptics, disinfectants, and pungent chemicals, all these negative connotations and preconceptions are quickly dispelled upon entering Vitas House.
Located on the compound of the St James Medical Complex, Vitas House provides free medical and nursing care for terminally ill cancer patients.
The environment is immaculately clean and comfortable, with its pristine white walls, natural sunlight, ambient lighting, and modern fittings that belie its purpose.
The atmosphere at Vitas House is light and cheerful; family members sit in the air-conditioned lobby, and others bring gifts and comfort food for their loved ones as they sit and talk.
Members of staff move with quiet proficiency, attending to their patients and tasks while soothing music can be heard in some rooms.
There are no sad faces, no despair or gloominess among patients or their relatives.
Vitas House, a subsidiary of the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society that began as a dream of Dr George Laquis, former chairman of the society, is entirely funded by generous donations and has a dedicated staff.
The hospice staff cares for 12 people at maximum occupancy.
While some have moved on, new staff members are just as motivated to ensure that the people in their care enjoy life to the fullest and can die peacefully with dignity and as pain-free as possible.
40 years of selfless, voluntary hospice work
Patricia “Pat” Stollmeyer, 85, the co-founder of Vitas House, is a retired registered nurse trained in the UK. She has dedicated more than 40 years of her life to selfless, voluntary hospice work, quietly taking care of patients and providing essential support at the final stage of their lives, under the radar and without fanfare.
WE magazine sat down with Stollmeyer in a bright, convivial meeting room at Vitas House that reflected the hospice’s environment and talked about her work along with Dr Astra Chang-Ramsden, hospice and palliative care physician.
With humility, she emphasised that hospice care and the care of patients were the focus, not her.
Stollmeyer said, “Vitas House Hospice was a dream of Dr George Laquis, which became a reality. He had a vision to complement the work of the society, providing support for those who had exhausted all treatments and had a life expectancy of six months or less.
“I suppose you could say that Dr Jackie Sabga and I were co-founders as we were there from the start.
“After agreeing to volunteer at the Living Water Hospice, I trained in hospice care, which included pain management and symptom control.”
She said that luckily for her, this was done at St Christopher’s Hospice in London under the watchful eye of Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement.
Stollmeyer started hospice work when Living Water opened Trinidad’s first hospice in 1983.
She accepted their invitation to work at the hospice with much reluctance, as she said she did not feel she would be any good with dying people.
Stollmeyer expressed how surprised she was feeling so at ease in that environment, effortlessly engaging in conversations with patients about their hopes and fears, even as they approached the end of their lives.
She added, “More importantly, we could take away their pain and other distressing symptoms. I am passionate about pain control.”
When asked if it was someone in her family or a friend who was in pain or suffering that she wanted to help that started her on her life path or calling, she replied, “Not at all.”
Stollmeyer, the mother of two—a daughter and son—and grandmother of four—two granddaughters and two grandsons—said she sees fear, hope, peace, love, and acceptance in patients’ eyes at the hospice.
Stollmeyer listens to their fears and then explains how they can be allayed. This comforts them and their family members.
‘To listen is the most important verb in hospice care’
“To listen is the most important verb in hospice care,” she said. “A patient’s story, their hopes and fears, and their family’s hopes and fears should be as important to us as it is to them.”
For Stollmeyer, there have been many fulfilling and low experiences in her work. She shared that Annette Agard, an RN colleague, and she did home care in the 90s and they struggled to find a doctor who would visit with them.
Stollmeyer said Dr Gerard Farfan offered and continued to do visits with them until Dr Jacqueline Sabga came along.
The 20 years she did home hospice care with Dr Sabga and the earlier years with Agard were the most fulfilling of her life, Stollmeyer said.
Dr Sabga, the former chairman and medical director of Vitas House, left the hospice and moved on to open her own NGO, Promise House, in Santa Cruz, helping children and their families who are going through the rigours of chemotherapy.
Sabga, she said, is her very dearest friend and colleague. “Those years are the highlight of my hospice life and gave me the most joy,” Stollmeyer said.
She described Sabga as a compassionate, caring, and loving human being and said under her guidance, Vitas House was known for everything good in hospice care.
“It was a happy place, and I think families were pleased that their loved ones peacefully ended their lives there,” Stollmeyer said. “She is my legacy.”
Stollmeyer mused that one could say that “home care is the true hospice care.” She explained that people should remember that “hospice” is a concept, not a building.
Stollmeyer added that a building is only needed when home care becomes impossible.
She said that Chelsea Garcia and her LIVHealth organisation was the only group doing home hospice care in Trinidad.
Hospice or end-of-life care remains the relieving of pain and symptom control and constantly listening to the worries and fears of patients and their families. The good news is that the resources to do that are available now.
Stollmeyer acknowledged the changes and advancements in treatment, techniques, and technology for the care of patients since she started to the present. She said the problem or challenge of sourcing essential medication has become rare today.
There would be a shortage of a particular drug now and then, but nothing hindered patient care.
New drugs are available for different symptoms, she said, but the true and tested traditional ones are still used.
Call for more young people and healthcare professionals to get involved
When asked if there were any challenges for her during the COVID-19 lockdown, Stollmeyer replied that the sadness was the difficulty relatives had in visiting patients.
But everyone understood the reason and complied with the rules. Whether there were any young people involved in hospice work or palliative care, she said young people, schoolchildren, came by to visit the patients occasionally in groups.
Stollmeyer said at Christmas, school choirs came by and serenaded the patients, who in turn sang with them. She said Bishop Anstey High School (BAHS) students were particularly loyal and often came to sing for past pupils and past teachers in their care, and everyone was able to enjoy their songs.
Music plays an important part in hospice care, she added.
Stollmeyer would like to see more young people and healthcare professionals involved in hospice work or palliative care. Asked if she had an intern or apprentice, someone who she could pass the baton to as she shared her years of knowledge and experience, Stollmeyer said she hoped she had already done that with the nurses, doctors, and carers who have worked with her.
She said she was always willing to share and receive advice. “We have excellent hospice doctors in Trinidad, and the hope is that many more young doctors will choose hospice and palliative care as their speciality,” Stollmeyer said.
On whether she did any other charitable or humanitarian work or supported any environmental causes, she said hospice work had taken up most of her time these last 41 years. Her family members were very much involved in environmental causes, and she helped whenever she could.
“There is an urgent need for facilities for hospice care in south Trinidad, and I hope the Government and the private sector will do something about that,” she said.
Dr Astra Chang-Ramsden said her full-time job at Caura Hospital was as a registrar in hospice and palliative medicine under Dr Karen Cox and Dr Elizabeth Persad. At present, she has been the admitting physician at Vitas House for the last five years.
She said that palliative care and hospice care are similar, but there are some key differences. However, both focus on easing pain and discomfort, reducing stress, and helping people have the highest quality of life possible. She said hospice care focuses on the quality of life when a cure is no longer possible or the burdens of treatment outweigh the benefits.
