Pet Therapy for Hospice Patients

[Omaha Steve]

https://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/store/ars/item/42665/


Bring the healing, unconditional love of therapy dogs to those who need it most.

Here's a program guaranteed to touch your heart. Home for Life®, in Star Prairie, Wisconsin, is a very special shelter: a shelter for rescued special-needs animals who have been given a second chance at life.

Now some of those rescued animals who found hope at Home for Life are giving back. Certified for pet therapy, rescued dogs are touching the lives of lonely, fragile, and sometimes forgotten members of society -- cancer patients, the mentally ill, injured soldiers, and residents of nursing homes and hospices.

The Sit*Stay*Heal program provides healing pet therapy to hospital patients and to the terminally ill. This collaborative program began with the Fairview University Hospitals to bring solace and joy to children who are undergoing treatment for cancer. The program has now expanded to serve:

Adult critical care patients at Fairview University Hospital's cardiac and oncology floors
Adult and pediatric (ages 4-12) patients at Fairview University Hospital receiving treatment for mental health conditions
Hospice programs of Aseracare, providing hospice services to the terminally ill
Soldiers returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts who have suffered multiple, severe injuries and are receiving treatment and rehabilitation at the VA Hospital Polytrauma Unit in Minneapolis. This unit is one of just four such facilities in the entire country caring for severely injured veterans

FULL story at link.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. And then there's Oscar.

I can't get through this without crying.

A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat

David M. Dosa, M.D., M.P.H.
N Engl J Med 2007; 357:328-329July 26, 2007DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp078108

Oscar the Cat awakens from his nap, opening a single eye to survey his kingdom. From atop the desk in the doctor's charting area, the cat peers down the two wings of the nursing home's advanced dementia unit. All quiet on the western and eastern fronts. Slowly, he rises and extravagantly stretches his 2-year-old frame, first backward and then forward. He sits up and considers his next move.

In the distance, a resident approaches. It is Mrs. P., who has been living on the dementia unit's third floor for 3 years now. She has long forgotten her family, even though they visit her almost daily. Moderately disheveled after eating her lunch, half of which she now wears on her shirt, Mrs. P. is taking one of her many aimless strolls to nowhere. She glides toward Oscar, pushing her walker and muttering to herself with complete disregard for her surroundings. Perturbed, Oscar watches her carefully and, as she walks by, lets out a gentle hiss, a rattlesnake-like warning that says “leave me alone.” She passes him without a glance and continues down the hallway. Oscar is relieved. It is not yet Mrs. P.'s time, and he wants nothing to do with her.
....



Making his way back up the hallway, Oscar arrives at Room 313. The door is open, and he proceeds inside. Mrs. K. is resting peacefully in her bed, her breathing steady but shallow. She is surrounded by photographs of her grandchildren and one from her wedding day. Despite these keepsakes, she is alone. Oscar jumps onto her bed and again sniffs the air. He pauses to consider the situation, and then turns around twice before curling up beside Mrs. K. ... One hour passes. Oscar waits. A nurse walks into the room to check on her patient. She pauses to note Oscar's presence. Concerned, she hurriedly leaves the room and returns to her desk. She grabs Mrs. K.'s chart off the medical-records rack and begins to make phone calls.

Within a half hour the family starts to arrive. Chairs are brought into the room, where the relatives begin their vigil. The priest is called to deliver last rites. And still, Oscar has not budged, instead purring and gently nuzzling Mrs. K. A young grandson asks his mother, “What is the cat doing here?” The mother, fighting back tears, tells him, “He is here to help Grandma get to heaven.” Thirty minutes later, Mrs. K. takes her last earthly breath. With this, Oscar sits up, looks around, then departs the room so quietly that the grieving family barely notices.

The article above was Oscar's introduction to the world. Here is more about Oscar:

Oscar (therapy cat)

Oscar (born 2005) is a therapy cat living in the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He came to public attention in July 2007 when he was featured in an article by David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, in the New England Journal of Medicine. According to Dosa, Oscar appears able to predict the impending death of terminally ill patients. Explanations for this ability include the lack of movement in such patients, or that the cat can smell ketones, the biochemicals released by dying cells.

Oscar became the subject of a book by Dosa in 2010, Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat.

[KamaAina]

2. "Get that goddamn cat off my bed!"

[phil89]

3. Confirmation bias

at its best